On February 5, the longest-serving team principal on the grid made headlines for all the wrong reasons. Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner has been accused of “inappropriate, controlling behaviour” towards a female member of staff and is now under formal investigation by an external barrister hired by Red Bull. Horner has denied the allegations wholeheartedly and has ignored advice from Red Bull advisors and executives to resign from his post.
It is unclear as to the nature of the claims against Horner; however, given the sport’s historical aversion to appropriately handling misconduct allegations, specifically those of a sexual nature, it leads public opinion to believe something truly atrocious must have taken place. The lack of information being released about the allegations only exacerbates these rumours. This being true, the behaviour exhibited by Horner was apparently ongoing and transgressive,” which, according to Merriam-Webster, is defined as “the act or process of breaking a law or moral rule”.
This allegation is indicative of the greater sexist culture within motorsport, which Red Bull has continuously contributed to. The head of the Red Bull driver development programme, Helmut Marko, has a rich history of making comments regarding how women’s “female nature” makes them inept at motorsport. Horner has been quoted as saying that women only watch the sport and its corresponding Netflix documentary series ‘Drive to Survive’ because of these “great-looking young drivers”. Other teams are not innocent of this perpetration, such as when Haas retained Nikita Mazepin for the 2020 season after he groped a woman and uploaded the video of the assault onto his social media accounts.
An eight-hour hearing held in a secret London location regarding the accusations last Friday yielded inconclusive results, and it seems likely that Horner will be present at the upcoming car launch for his team this week. No further information is being released for public access thus far, but the upcoming decision may irrevocably impact the complaints process in the sport, whether Horner is found innocent or guilty. It is unclear what other formal proceedings, if any, may take place, but it seems this news has already been dominated by the ever-changing nature of Formula One, with the media attention focused on the near-complete carbon lives of many cars rather than the misconduct of those who helped put them on the track.
Illustration via Lucy Keegan