It seemed like the story had finished: Christian Horner was back in the F1 paddock. Yet another bomb has exploded. An email with photos and screenshots of suspected conversations has been leaked, and a statement from Horner himself followed.
On Wednesday evening, it was confirmed that Horner had been cleared. This was announced in a Red Bull GmbH press release and confirmed he could continue as Red Bull Racing team boss. You might have thought that was the end. Horner also arrived back at the paddock on Thursday 'as normal' and even did some media sessions for the television.
Yet from minute one, dark clouds rolled over his head. Firstly, because the person who made the allegations can still appeal, but above all, because with the closure of the investigation, many questions remained open.
Competitors want transparency from Red Bull
The subject was talked about at the press conference for the team bosses. Zak Brown and Toto Wolff were asked for their views on the matter. Both said they wanted transparency. There was no transparency, and the question was to what extent that would be detrimental to Formula 1. F1 and FIA have not yet announced whether they will investigate Red Bull's investigation further.
With that press conference, Red Bull Racing remained under fire, much to the frustration of many team members. The team's spirit was much better again on Thursday due to the 'good news', but it was still all about Horner.
During the second free practice, the media centre was put on high alert when attention would finally switch back to the track. The attention was no longer about the action on the track but an e-mail that many journalists had received. The anonymous account apparently had access to almost all journalists in the paddock, F1 team bosses, F1 staff and people from the FIA.
How the Horner bomb burst again
GPblog.com also saw the content, which consisted of photos and screenshots. It cannot be said with 100% clarity that the photos are genuine. Nor the screenshots. The news was submitted to Red Bull Racing, but no response followed.
Half an hour later, Red Bull Racing's press officer appeared outside the hospitality and read Christian Horner's statement: "I won't comment on anonymous speculation, 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. I remain fully focused on the start of the season." It was made clear that this was a statement by Horner and not by Red Bull Racing or Red Bull.
Whereas many fans would have hoped to be able to talk about race, that does not seem to have been the intention of whoever sent the email. Who that was, their motives, and how that person had access to all those e-mail addresses are unanswered questions.
Like in a court of law, once someone has been aquitted of an alleged crime, the person cannot be charged again for the same offence ... As he has already been cleared, then Case Closed!! Whatever new evidence (whether its true or fabricated) that might crop up now doesnt make any difference. The accused has been found not guilty!
There has been no court case or judge involved, so your remark is a bit off. I have seen the messages, and judge or no judge Ginger Spice will be FURIOUS about them. And for those who wonder : no i will not post the link to them. google is your friend.
Apparently, a deliberate dirty campaign is being waged against Horner, with the aim of destabilizing RB. I don't believe anything more than that.
The CEO of a company should know better.....because we haven't seen all the msgs or if the ones we have seen are legit or not, but if he didn't send the msgs then there wouldn't be anything to destabilize RB.
After this, I no longer believe anything to be true. Horner himself says he is not guilty, and the investigation confirmed this. I think it's time for the police to get involved, because this is becoming a criminal act. So if it is as Horner says, let it all come out.
I think it is time to release the lady's name. CH getting grilled but not the Lady. The Lady wants CH buried 6 feet under. If I were CH. I would tell the world who this person is. Baby cause if I am going down then you are coming with me.
If the msg are legit then the small few that I've seen then the woman involved has done nothing wrong. It seems like he was pestering her but she batted away his advances.
I have just read the messages now. She is not that innocent either. She sort of played along, until she got him by the b@))5. She could have stopped everything by just letting him know. You better stop or I am reporting this, but she did not. Hundreds of messages between them. Nah she knew what she was doing.
Oh maybe you've seen different ones then as the few I've seen there wasn't much in it..... It won't be long before everything is out if the rest of the paddock have them.
Also maybe she played along a bit because it was the boss and didn't want to be blunt with him/ maybe she was up for a promotion and didn't want to rock the boat? So many unknowns that's why I think Horner being the CEO should have known better.
I'm not sure where you saw that, but i've seen on other forums different kinds of added photos. Some are so fake, they keep the "File-17.png" in place, but replaced the Whatsapp convo with a blurry D pic. Even if the Whatsapp convo was fake, other fakers add more layers of fake on top of the fake cake. I had not seen the full front pic, but i'm assuming that if it was real, i WOULD have seen it by now.
I agree that CH should have known better. But the fact that she send him a full front on pic is the game changer. Nobody put a gun to her head. She knew what she was doing, just as he did.
This is the weirdest comment I have seen regarding this topic... CH pestering her is about the last takeaway I would have had reading these screenshots!
From the ones I seen ( we could be looking at different ones) to me he was being a pest nothing else but it'll all come out soon enough.
Yeah, if this was real and anything was happening then what i read in those messages seemed to be a back and forth, not just Horner "assaulting" her. The one about the "twitch", where she brought up having a bf, i've experienced this situation quite a couple of times and she ended up cheating on said bf... so to me it just looks like she was being naughty. The later one where he asked her about the outfit of the day, she did seem overly short answered, so maybe she had enough, or had him by the gonads. Or realized that she also messed up and tried to keep him at a distance or whatever. Either way, i didn't read that as a one-sided conversation. I even saw someone saying that the blurry pic at the swimming pool (File-3.png) has a married couple in it (in the water to the left) and she said she was delighted to be broiled up in this thing, she mentioned having taking snaps of Christian and Helmut. Of course, she didn't mention anything about a woman (of what i saw). (the TwiX woman is named: Suzanne Stirling @Stirlo1974 , i don't have TwiX so i can't see more) I don't know, if real, it doesn't look like much, although Horner might have to explain a few things to Geri, but it doesn't look like assault, and he doesn't look like the evil overlord that other claims said either.
It seems that this affair is a ” neverending story” to quote the title of a cult movie and song..
Sounds like a witch hunt! The timing of all the bombshells is very well orchestrated, which tells me it was all planned to bring CH down!! Hope he takes it further and sues the parties involved!
"GPblog.com also saw the content" Well... stop beating around the bush then!
Blimey, someone has certainly getting their claws into Horner,
Gosh, with the announcement of DTS ratings slump, it seems rather fortunate coincidence that next DTS seasons episodes (of this F1 season) will have plenty of "drama". Just sayin ..... ;)
Its got nothing to do with toto or zack or tge fia red bull done it the right way .now maybe the fia should do the same with toto investergation take it to 3rd party but droped it
And the pictures seen on twitter from the "leak" is just alot of nothings. Normal messages between two people, wouldn't get anyone fired, ever. And that's if we even would take these new rumours as true, those images are easily made in ex Photoshop within minutes, not any proof at all. I guess this is just medias right now trying to get every little bit of cake and milking it for the views. It starts to get ridiculous now
We don't want to hear about leaked messages, we want to see them!
and what when you see if you believe it? whoever forwarded this knew what he was doing, he wanted to harm CH, as soon as he had so many e-mail addresses, today it is at least possible to fake evidence of this nature and when the principal appears, do you know that it is a lawsuit of epic proportions..
Alen commented on your comment and wrote you are another one of those who are looking for blood, wanting to enjoy someone else's pain because your life is miserable and ruined. This is the comment you replied to me that was deleted. Who are you to judge or tell me what quality of life i have? Did i say something against CH? All i said is that i want to see them. Whether you do or not is your problem. What's wrong with you people? Grow up already
Lol....You're not missing much LH44..... I'm not sure if the ones I seen are legit or not but I'm not surprised they were desperate to keep it in house.... Horners chat up lines are awful : )..... Jokes aside it's not a good look if a CEO is texting this to a member of his staff.
Not a good look...maybe...but the ones I've seen, which are likely the same that you saw, were all together pretty mucb harmless and certainly not something to warrant thos whole.saga so far, let alone a dismissal!
Yeah I agree not a lot in it to be fair but apparently there's a lot more out there. Wouldn't be surprised if there's more tomorrow. But if this is the worst ones that we've seen then RB have blown this out of proportion big time
Popular on GPBlog
Kelly Piquet shines during baby shower on Max Verstappen's brand new yacht
British media respond to Verstappen's 'flawless' Japanese Grand Prix drive where he 'stole' victory
Verstappen's win makes Russell wonder: 'Would McLaren be 1 or 5 tenths quicker?'
