Other senior figures within F1 also believe that after such a high-profile affair that brought the sport’s reputation into question, transparency is required to ensure the issue has been dealt with correctly.
The decision not to release any information provoked disquiet in the paddock, with the Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, demanding transparency from the company. Horner has been under intense scrutiny since the matter was made public on 5 February, during which time he repeatedly and emphatically denied any wrongdoing. The inquiry lasted weeks and is understood to have resulted in a report of 600 pages. On Wednesday the result of the investigation was announced by Red Bull GmbH, which issued a short statement declaring the grievance had been dismissed but that it would not be revealing any details of the complaint, what materials or evidence the investigation had seen or the findings it made to protect the confidentiality of those involved. I remain fully focused on the start of the season.” It was a thorough and fair investigation, conducted by an independent specialist barrister, and it has concluded dismissing the complaint made. “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. “I won’t comment on anonymous speculation,” he said. Reacting to the incident Horner stridently reasserted his denial of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour made against him and restated that he was found to have no case to answer by the independent investigation conducted by an English barrister. There is no indication by whom the emails were sent and the veracity of their content cannot be proven.
The images had been sent to journalists across the international press, team bosses and figures within the FIA and F1 management, under the subject header “Christian Horner investigation evidence”, with the introduction to the email stating: “Following Red Bull’s recent investigation and statements you will be interested to see the materials attached.”
While Horner and Red Bull had hoped to be able finally to return their focus to racing during the second practice session of the day in Bahrain, attention was turned firmly away from the timing screens shortly after the session had begun at 6.22pm local time. The email was sent from two different email addresses three separate times to the recipients and contained a link to a Google Drive folder containing 79 images of messages purportedly sent between Horner and the female employee whose complaint prompted Red Bull Racing’s parent company, Red Bull GmbH, to instigate an investigation several weeks ago.