Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner maintains his denial of misconduct allegations made against him following a leak of information containing files relating to Red Bull’s concluded investigation into the matter. Zak Brown and Toto Wolff meanwhile have called for the FIA to look into the matter.
Following yesterday’s announcement that Christian Horner had been cleared of any wrongdoing by Red Bull at the conclusion of their investigation into allegations of misconduct, the Red Bull Racing team principal has been forced to make a statement.
This comes following a leak of information relating to the investigation, with an anonymous email allegedly containing messages and pictures sent between the Red Bull man and a member of staff. The email was reportedly sent to various permanently accredited media outlets, other team bosses Formula 1 personnel, as well as both Mohammed Ben Sulayem and Stefano Domenicali.
Horner, who has been cleared by Red Bull following an independent investigation, has maintained his innocence throughout proceedings. Following the leak which came during FP2 for the season opening Bahrain Grand Prix, he has released a statement once again maintaining his innocence.
“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation,” Horner’s statement read. “But to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations. I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way.
“It was a thorough and fair investigation conducted by an independent specialist barrister and it has concluded, dismissing the complaint made.”
This afternoon’s leak comes alongside calls from fellow Formula 1 team principals, Toto Wolff of Mercedes and Zak Brown of McLaren, for the FIA to look into the matter citing the lack of detail provided by Red Bull in how they had come to their conclusion.
“I read the statement,” Brown stated during a media session ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. “I think from what I’ve seen, there continues to be a lot of rumors and speculation, questions. I think the sanctioning body has a responsibility and authority to our sport, to our fans.
“I think all of us in Formula 1 are ambassadors for the sport on and off the track, like you see in other sports. So I think they need to make sure that things have been fully transparent with them. I don’t know what those conversations are. It needs to be thorough, fully transparent, and that they come to the same conclusion that has been given by Red Bull, and that they agree with the outcome.
“But I think until then, there’ll continue to be speculation, because there are a lot of unanswered questions about the whole process. So I think that’s what’s needed by those who run the sport to be really able to draw a line under it. Until then, I think there’ll continue to be some level of speculation by people and I don’t think that’s healthy for the sport.”
Echoing Brown’s sentiment, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called for more transparency following the conclusion of the investigation. Wolff questioned the position of the sport on the matter when asked his opinion on Red Bull’s conclusion.
“My personal opinion is we can’t really look behind the curtain,” Wolff said. “At the end of the day, there is a lady in an organization that has spoken to HR and said there was an issue, and it was investigated and yesterday, the sport has received the message that, ‘It’s all fine, we’ve looked at it.’
“I believe with the aspiration as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency, and I wonder what the sport’s position is? We’re competitors, we’re a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not. But it’s more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to assess, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.”
Wolff went on to say it is the duty of the sport to give the all clear on the investigation to clear up any ongoing speculation and noted that the process followed seems closed off and outdated.
“We’re being asked questions as competitors here. Are we talking as competitors? Are we talking with the right moral approach, with the values based on the speculations that are out there?
“I simply think as a sport, we cannot afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical topics like this, because this is going to catch us out. We’re in a super-transparent world — eventually things are going to happen, and I think we have the duty, the organization has the duty to say, ‘Well, we’ve looked at it, and it’s OK’ and then we can move on.
“It’s sometimes very short-sighted to try to suppress it. Not saying this has happened. We’re standing from the outside and looking at it. But just looking at statements or press releases or the timelines, it just seems that it’s a bit not as modern as things go in this world, in the real world out there. But maybe in Formula 1, we’re just our little bubble and we think that’s OK.”
It is believed both the FIA and Formula 1 are presently looking into the leaked images in order to determine the validity of their content amid widespread concerns they may be faked.
