Christian Horner has insisted he intends to remain as team principal at Red Bull. The 50-year-old maintains that he has retained the full backing of his team and his family despite the continuing furore after his exoneration from allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by a female employee and the leaking of messages purporting to be between Horner and the complainant.
The issue has dominated the opening race week of the season, even as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen swept to a crushing victory in the Bahrain Grand Prix by an enormous margin. Horner is considered to be still fighting to save his career and after the race, facing the media for the first time formally this week he was bullish in maintaining he would not be pushed out of the role he has held for more than 19 years since the team was formed in 2005.
When asked if he was confident he would be in place for the rest of the season he was unequivocal. “Absolutely,” he replied without hesitation, adding he always felt the investigation into the allegations, which on Wednesday delivered its decision that the grievance had been dismissed, would find in his favour.
“I’ve always been entirely confident that I would be here,” he said. “My focus is on the season ahead and the races we have ahead.”
Horner once more flatly refused to comment on the email which leaked the messages, the veracity of which has yet to be proven, once more stating he would not comment on “anonymous, speculative messages from an unknown source”.
The release of the email to senior figures and press across F1 is considered a move to destabilise Horner in what may be an internal power struggle within Red Bull Racing and the parent company, Red Bull GmbH. Horner would not address the rationale behind the email but insisted that since it was leaked he has retained the backing of his team and family, with his wife, Geri Halliwell-Horner, joining him at the track for the race.
“Obviously it’s not been pleasant. The unwanted attention,” he said. “I’m not going to comment on what motives, whatever person may have for doing this. My focus is on this team, my family, my wife and going racing. I have the support of an incredible family, of an incredible wife, of an incredible team and everybody within that team and my focus is on going racing and winning races and doing the best that I can.”
Horner celebrated Verstappen’s win by 22 seconds from his teammate Sergio Pérez, an enormous margin, while trying to play down its significance but insisted his attention going forward would be on delivering on track with 23 more races ahead this season. “You can see what it meant to the whole team, better to do your talking on-track,” he said. “The focus is now very much on the cars. My focus has very much been on what’s going on on track and the result today I think demonstrates where the whole team’s focus is and we move onwards.”