As expected, the episode that made Christian Horner, the director of Red Bull, receive more attention than Max Verstappen, the current Formula 1 world champion, in the first round of the World Championship, will offer more chapters. The last one, just a week after Horner was officially acquitted following the investigation that his own team launched, following an accusation of harassment received from an employee. This same Thursday, with all the paddock installed on the Jeddah circuit, where this Saturday the second event on the calendar takes place, Autosport.com revealed that the energy company has suspended the worker who accused the British executive from her job. “We are not in a position to offer any comment because this is an internal matter,” responded a Red Bull spokesperson, when Autosport requested a reaction from the structure.
This is the latest twist in a script that Netflix is rubbing its hands with, and that leaves track activity in the background, even though Red Bull is a protagonist in both areas. The champion team is going through a very sweet moment on a sporting level, but it is under scrutiny due to the management of the personnel who work in it. The outbursts of Helmut Marko, one of the main authorities within the Formula 1 division of the Austrian company, are common, and now it is Horner, or his ways, that are in question.
A day after Red Bull concluded that the investigation into the alleged harassment was unfounded, several anonymous email accounts sent a dossier, with more than seven dozen documents, with screenshots of alleged WhatsApp conversations between Horner and another person, as well as several photos of the former pilot. The manager then reiterated his innocence: “I will not make any comments regarding anonymous speculation. But I reiterate that I have always denied the accusations.”
As if all that were not enough, Jos Verstappen, Max’s father, declared after the premiere of the championship, in Bahrain, that Red Bull was in danger of splitting in two if Horner did not move away. “The team will explode. (Horner) is playing the role of the victim, when he is the one creating the problems,” Verstappen told the Daily Mail. This Wednesday, in the run-up to the race in Saudi Arabia, the current champion was asked about the comments of his father. “I have a very close relationship with him. I have not asked him directly, but my father is a very open and sincere person, and he is certainly not a liar,” Mad Max pointed out.
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