We Need To Talk About Christian Horner

We need to talk about Christian Horner after he’s been cleared of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour by Red Bull.

The controversy around Horner, the Team Principal of Red Bull, had been “hanging over the sport”, according to Sir Lewis Hamilton. That was the most diplomatic way to put it, as the mystery and intrigue at what had actually happened was the biggest story in F1 aside from Hamilton himself signing for Ferrari.

With pre-season testing having concluded and the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix weekend less than 24 hours away from starting, Horner is seemingly in the clear. The timing is interesting, especially after this issue was seeming set to rumble on without a conclusion.

So, is there more than meets the eye to Horner’s alleged nefarious activity? Well, as ever in Formula 1, there’s potentially a lot going on behind the scenes that the powers that be don’t want you to know about.

We need to talk about Christian Horner

Let’s start this analysis by sticking to the facts from the official channels before diving into what I think could’ve happened. There is a lot that we don’t know about these allegations and the nature of them, but it’s important to ignore the rumours and outright lies on the internet.

This saga kicked off in January of this year when allegations of “inappropriate controlling beha­viour” were made against Horner by a female ­member of staff at Red Bull. In response, RBR brought in an independent lawyer to conduct an investigation into those allegations.

On 9th February, it was announced that the hearing at Red Bull regarding Horner had ended “without resolution”. On 15th February, shortly after revealing the RB20, Horner stated in an interview with the BBC that the allegations were a “distraction” for him. Good to know he was taking this seriously…

That appeared to be the end of the case for now, but to everybody’s surprise and on the eve of the first race of the season, Red Bull has announced that Horner was cleared of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.

What actually happened?

I should stress that we don’t know what happened, as Red Bull haven’t made any significant details public. When the verdict got announced, the statement contained the following:

“The investigation report is confidential and contains the private information of the parties and third parties who assisted in the investigation, and therefore we will not be commenting further out of respect for all concerned. Red Bull will continue striving to meet the highest workplace standards.”

Despite this, we can speculate, and I should stress that this is just a theory and my opinion. It’s food for thought if nothing else. From the tone of the statements by Red Bull, this sounds like at the very minimum this was an alleged abuse of power by the Englishman.

Given Horner’s conduct in interviews, this wouldn’t be a surprise at all if it’s the case. To say Horner has a chip on his shoulder is a masterpiece of understatement. He’s cocky, brash and confident and has been riding high on the most dominant season in F1 history in 2023.

Throughout 2023 in particular, he was extremely grating to listen to. His conduct was similar to a toddler’s, with anything remotely anti-Red Bull being automatically rubbished and everything pro-Red Bull being the best thing since sliced bread.

Perhaps Horner got a bit too comfortable in his position in this off-season. After all, he’s part of the furniture at Red Bull with only a few other employees like Adrian Newey and Max Verstappen higher on the payroll.

Maybe Horner demanded too much of one of his female employees and insisted she carried out a task despite her complaints. In truth, as of the time of writing, we don’t know what happened and we may never know the whole story.

Something that isn’t in doubt though, is that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Horner might’ve believed he’s invincible and untouchable at Red Bull, something he will be no doubt questioning now.

The timing of the Horner verdict is also more than suspect. Both Formula 1 and senior figures in the sport such as Mercedes’ Toto Wolff have called for a quick resolution to the case this week.

Out of nowhere, they got their wishes, so you have to question whether wrapping this up swifty was in Red Bull’s best interests. To be frank, it was in Red Bull’s best intersts, and the sport as a whole, as F1 wants to present itself as progressive and inclusive to the outside world.

We’ll just ignore the fact that round two is hosted in Saudi Arabia, a nation where women are second-class citizens and LGBT people are executed for their sexual orientation.

Where do Red Bull go from here?

Horner has travelled to Bahrain for the season-opening race, so as far as Red Bull are concerned, it will be business as usual. They and Verstappen are the heavy favourites to take the win on Saturday, but Horner will most likely try to avoid the media as much as possible.

Horner has been found innocent by his team and has denied the allegations throughout, anything he says now cannot help his case in the court of public opinion. Everything he does will now be scrutinised more than data engineers looking at a drivers’ telemetry in practice.

Such is the nature of modern day society, Horner is already guilty in the eyes of some and nothing anybody says will change that. That in a sense is unfair, but when Red Bull aren’t making any details of the allegations nor the investigation public, people will wonder.

It’s not just F1 fans either, Ford have expressed displeasure at the way Red Bull was handling this process, according to a leaked letter from Ford CEO Jim Farley. Farley wrote that Ford was “increasingly frustrated by the lack of resolution or clear indication from you [Red Bull] about when you anticipate a fair and just resolution of this matter”.

“We are likewise frustrated by the lack of full transparency surrounding this matter with us, your corporate partners, and look forward to receiving a complete account of all findings,” he added.

Red Bull will partner with Ford from 2026, with the American company returning to F1 as an engine supplier. That deal is now in serious doubt, but . Although, I get the feeling we won’t have heard the last of this, as it’s likely that the allegedly abused employee could sue Red Bull over this and Red Bull themselves have acknowledged that she has the right to an appeal.

They say there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but this could drive Ford away from Red Bull and towards another F1 team such as McLaren. With Honda having left Red Bull to re-join F1 again in 2026 with Aston Martin, Red Bull could be stuck with their own engine for 2026 and not have works backing.

So, for now, Horner isn’t a casualty of this controversy, but there could be other victims that fall foul of it. Horner’s achievements in F1 are impressive as Red Bull Team Principal, but it’s possible that his team Red Bull Racing could suffer for sticking with the only boss they’ve ever known.