Horner acquitted: he remains at Red Bull

The Anglo-Austrian team absolves its team principal from accusations of “inappropriate behavior” towards an employee. The team’s internal investigations led to the decision, communicated on the eve of the Bahrain GP

– Milan

Chris Horner remains in place: his story with Red Bull continues. The Milton Keynes team announces that it has cleared its historic team principal of the accusations of “inappropriate behavior” towards a team employee, which emerged less than a month ago. The story was brought to light on February 5 by a scoop from the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf and confirmed by the team, which immediately launched an internal investigation with an independent lawyer, reaches its epilogue, announced on the eve of the Bahrain GP. The 50-year-old manager, who since 2005 had been at the helm of the team with which he reached the pinnacle of glory in F1, therefore continues at the helm of the Milton Keynes team.

the story

Horner had denied any wrongdoing, glossing over the relevant questions even during the presentation of the new Red Bull RB20 on February 15 (“I am part of the investigation and I cannot answer”), but the story sparked a media uproar also due to its popularity extra racing, having been married since 2015 to Geri Halliwell, ex Spice Girls. The very strong reactions from the entire paddock, from Toto Wolff (“Sensitive affair”), to Zak Brown (“Serious accusations that do no good to F1, let’s hope for the transparency of the Red Bull investigation”), up to F1 itself ( “Question to be clarified as soon as possible after a fair discussion”) and Ford, interested in the technical partnership with Milton Keynes from 2026 (“We set ourselves high standards of integrity and correctness and expect the same from our partners”), have fueled the issue and increased the pressure on the person concerned. The dimensions of the scandal were then magnified with further indiscretions from Telef on “sexually transgressive messages from Horner with an attempt to pay the victim to cover up the matter”, up to today’s verdict which sheds light on the manager’s behavior, the subject of a detailed internal investigation by the team.

glory

Horner won 6 constructors’ and 7 drivers’ World Championships with Red Bull, including 4 with Sebastian Vettel and 3 with Max Verstappen and has been one of the pillars of the team since its foundation by Dietrich Mateschitz. His bond with Adrian Newey, the brilliant designer of the unbeatable Red Bulls, is very strong.



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