Unless you’re a fan of Formula 1 or the slick Netflix docu-soap, Drive to survivethe name Christian Horner probably didn’t mean anything to you before this month.
However, you certainly know who he is now, after the Red Bull Racing team delivered a masterclass in reputation self-destruction.
Horner is the team boss of Red Bull, a scruffy little terrier of a man whose cars have utterly dominated the sport for the past two years. In his 19 years in office, he has delivered six constructors’ championships and seven drivers’ championships to his bosses at the energy drinks giant.
However, he is now better known to the general public as the man accused of sending flirty and sometimes lewd WhatsApp messages to a female colleague, an episode that could forever overshadow his prodigious achievements in F1.
The fact that Horner’s wife is former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell only added spice to the saga.
More than a month after reports of Horner’s alleged controlling behavior first surfaced, Red Bull is no closer to putting out the fire in its midst. If anything, his actions only kept the fire going.
Red Bull decided on Thursday to suspend the woman who accused Horner of abuse of power. This comes after Horner tried to portray himself as a victim, saying the past few weeks had been “very tough” for his family.
Is this a simple case of a big company throwing a woman under a bus to protect a valuable alpha male? Is there more going on behind the scenes? And can Horner really continue as if nothing happened?
Horner, 50, has maintained from the start that he is innocent of all charges against him. Yet he has never denied that the WhatsApp messages between him and the female employee, which were leaked to the media on February 29 and are now widely circulated online, are genuine.
The WhatsApp messages he exchanged with his colleague are flirty, to say the least. Some are overtly sexual in nature. To be fair, any woman who reads such messages sent by her husband to another woman might consider this a divorce case.
What we don’t know is if the messages have been edited in any way, or if there are other messages not included in the leak that could cast the episode in a different light. Team Horner certainly tried to suggest this.
Anyone trying to make sense of the dark stream of revelations in recent weeks may have wondered whether this was a case of an office flirtation gone sour, with a willing female participant deciding to take a rich man to the cleaners when he came to an end.
If she hadn’t explicitly told him from the start to stop sending her provocative messages, she could argue that she feared the consequences. There is demonstrably a power imbalance between the two: Horner is one of the most powerful men, not only at Red Bull Racing but also in F1. The woman in question is a nobody compared to him.
It is important to note that Horner was subjected to what Red Bull said was an independent investigation conducted by an external lawyer, which cleared him of wrongdoing on February 28. Yet Red Bull never even named the lawyer involved, leading to claims from rival lawyers. teams that the process has been about as transparent as a lump of asphalt.
Toto Wolff, team boss of Mercedes and Horner’s arch-rivals, is among those who demanded transparency in the process, saying senior F1 figures were “role models” in a global sport. Horner’s supporters could of course argue that Wolff, unable to engage Horner on track, will take every opportunity that arises to destabilize Red Bull in other ways.
If the woman in question is ultimately fired or quits her job, she could explore the possibility of taking Red Bull to an employment tribunal, but even if she were to win, Red Bull would not be obliged to take action against Horner.
However, Horner is far from out of the woods yet. There are other players and other plot threads in this story, many of whom will have significant influence on its ending.
Horner has insisted that the Red Bull team is united, and it is true that the psychodrama did nothing to prevent another imperious performance at last weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, where Red Bull’s cars were first and finished second.
However, any suggestion that Red Bull is a happy camp is laughable. Jos Verstappen, father and mentor of Red Bull’s number 1 driver and three-time world champion Max Verstappen, wants Horner out.
“There is tension here as he remains in position,” he said on March 2. “The team is in danger of being torn apart. It cannot continue as it is. It will explode.
“He plays the victim, while he is the one causing the problems.”
Speculation about Verstappen’s future remains intense, helped by the fact that his father has held talks with Wolff.
It has also been reported that Verstappen – under contract until 2028 – has a break clause in his contract that would allow him to walk away as Red Bull’s 80-year-old advisor Helmut Marko, with whom he has a good relationship, the Milton Keynes-based company leaves. team. Crucially, Marko, who is employed directly by Red Bull and not Red Bull Racing, is considered an opponent and not an ally of Horner.
Then there are the partners of Red Bull Racing. Honda, the engine supplier, has called for “complete clarity” on the situation and Ford, which will be Red Bull’s engine partner from 2026, has said: “Ford’s values are non-negotiable. It is imperative that our racing partners share and demonstrate a genuine commitment to those same values.”
Red Bull Racing is of course a subsidiary of a much larger beast, Red Bull GmbH. It’s a company built entirely on marketing and brand recognition, which is why it pours so many millions into sponsoring and financing high-octane sports like F1.
Red Bull is not essential to the household, which means the strength of the brand is of great importance. If the Formula 1 team’s parent company fears – or sees any evidence that – the Horner saga is damaging that brand, its position is likely to become dangerous.
Friday is International Women’s Day and Red Bull’s ‘B’ team on the F1 grid, RB, was on the grid for qualifying in Saudi Arabia with a sticker on the cars that read: “Happy International Women’s Day to all incredible women on our team! You make the difference.” Below that, the name of each female employee was then listed. Horner’s own team did not follow suit. Red Bull’s own research shows that 31 percent of consumers are women, accounting for £2.6 billion in sales.
Yet Mark Borkowski, one of Britain’s most experienced PR consultants, thinks we may all be looking through the wrong end of the telescope.
“F1 is a global sport and the average F1 fan in Spain, Italy or Saudi Arabia could care less about this,” he said. “Red Bull has always been an outsider and it is a very masculine sport.”
Horner retains the support of the most important woman in his life, Halliwell, who walked hand in hand with him in Bahrain. For now, he also appears to have the support of Red Bull’s majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, whose Thai father Chaleo co-founded Red Bull with Austrian marketing genius Dietrich Mateschitz.
Yoovidhya and his wife Daranee joined Horner and Halliwell at the Bahrain Grand Prix to watch Verstappen win the opening race of the season.
Horner is close to Yoovidhya (former driver Ralf Schumacher has said that Yoovidhya sees Horner as “a kind of foster son”) and also enjoyed Mateschitz’s unwavering support until his death in 2022. Mateschitz’s son and heir, Mark, who is 49 percent of the shares in Red Bull GmbH reportedly wants Horner out, but Yoovidhya retains the ultimate veto.
Horner said before this weekend’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix that it was time to “move on” from the controversy. Ironically, the utter dominance of his team (which won all but one of last season’s races) means there is little on-track excitement to distract from Red Bull’s HR problems.
Borkowski believes there are still potential dangers ahead, especially if the woman who filed the complaint decides to make an interview public. “If it turns out there is more to this story,” he said, “people are going to run for cover and there has to be a sacrificial lamb, and that would be Horner.”
The fate of the Formula 1 Championship may seem like a foregone conclusion, but as things stand, Horner’s continued presence on the pit wall is not.