Following two months of investigation, last week Red Bull team boss was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent barrister in a case of alleged inappropriate conduct with a junior member of the team’s staff. In the current issue of BusinessF1 Magazine, Red Bull’s CEO Oliver Mintzlaff is said to have already decided to fire Horner in early February, before Horner’s lawyers moved to block the sacking.
According to reports from German-language Motorsport-Total, the company was willing to see Horner walk away without bringing the allegations to light, “without loss of face and without lasting damage to his private life.”
Mintzlaff had planned to give Horner his walking papers on February 2, allegedly drafting a press release with the following wording:
“Red Bull GmbH confirms that Christian Horner has left Red Bull Racing with immediate effect. Red Bull GmbH will make no further comment on the matter.”
Horner has been team principal of Red Bull since the team’s inception when it bought the remains of Jaguar F1 in 2005. At the time he was the youngest team principal in F1 history. The now-50-year-old Horner was given the opportunity to separate from the team without fanfare “for health reasons.”
Horner did not want to accept the termination and called in his lawyers to block the CEO’s actions. Horner insisted on arbitration, and his lawyers threatened to file an injunction with the London High Court if his firing had been completed without independent investigation.
BusinessF1 writes:
“The matter had already lasted nine weeks […], and Mintzlaff concluded that two more weeks would make no difference. He was certain that an arbitrator would rule against Horner because the evidence was overwhelming spoke against him. Mintzlaff believed that Red Bull GmbH would not be able to keep Horner after what he had seen and read. Secretly he was appalled by Horner’s behavior.”
The fallout from this investigation and the outcome have not yet been borne fully. Ford, which is currently scheduled to partner with Red Bull from 2026, has called for the team to make the investigation public and transparent (along with competing team bosses Zak Brown and Toto Wolff). Jos Verstappen, father and manager of Red Bull’s defending champion Max, has had a public falling out with Horner, and the rumor mill claims that he’s currently working on getting Max a contract deal with Mercedes to take Lewis Hamilton’s seat when he leaves the team next season. Losing a lucrative contract with Ford and it’s star driver would certainly put Red Bull in a tough position.
Horner and his wife, Spice Girl Geri Halliwell-Horner (above), were seen in the paddock together in a move that felt very Public Relations-motivated.
Over the race weekend, which Red Bull once again walked away with an undeniable victory, many pieces of evidence allegedly from the case were leaked to the F1 paddock, FIA officers, and hundreds of members of the press following Horner being found not culpable by the barrister. There are still questions about the independence of the investigation, and how the conclusion was reached.
This doesn’t seem to be the last that the world has heard about the Horner investigation. Knowing F1 it will continue to drag along, and even the mere suspicion hanging over Horner, his presence in the paddock representing the current World Championship team is a detriment to the credibility of the team and the sport.