Christian Horner can breathe easy and now concentrate fully on the new season which is about to start in Bahrain, with qualifying on Friday and a race on Saturday (4 p.m.). Indeed, the president of the Red Bull team was exonerated, by the internal investigation, of accusations of inappropriate behavior made by an employee towards the fifty-year-old. “The complaint was dismissed. Red Bull is convinced that the investigation was fair, rigorous and impartial,” a company spokesperson said.
Christian Horner, who has led Red Bull since 2005, has always denied the allegations. The statement, issued by Red Bull’s headquarters in Austria, however, adds: “The complainant has the right to appeal.” Likewise, the company that markets Red Bull energy drinks provided no details about the allegations or the investigation, simply stating: “The investigation report is confidential and contains the private information of the parties and third parties who contributed to the investigation, and therefore we will not make further comments out of respect for all involved. Red Bull will continue to strive for the highest workplace standards.”
Red Bull opened an investigation on February 5, after details of the allegations were revealed. Thus, Telegraaf affirmed, after being contacted by the complainant, that Chrstian Horner was guilty of “transgressive sexual behavior”, through numerous messages sent to the employee of the Austrian stable. Still according to the Dutch daily, the boss of Red Bull then offered him a sum of around 760,000 euros so that the affair did not become known. From this internal investigation was born a report of around 150 pages, compiling around sixty hours of interviews with the main stakeholders, but also many members of the team.
Earlier on Wednesday, at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton spoke on the matter: “Obviously we don’t know everything that happened. But this problem that is plaguing the sport needs to be addressed and it will be really interesting to see how this is dealt with in the future in terms of the effects it may or may not have on the sport. I think this is a really important moment for our sport – to make sure we stay true to our values.”
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