Mar.1 (GMM) Pink Bull GmbH, the mother or father firm of the dominant Components 1 group, insists the scandal that put the sword of Damocles over group principal Christian Horner’s whole profession is now “non-public”.
After the corporate ended its investigation into Horner’s alleged and mysterious unhealthy behaviour involving a feminine workers member by re-affirming his place on the prime of Pink Bull Racing, rival duo Toto Wolff and Zak Brown continued to cost in opposition to Horner.
Within the group principals’ press convention in Bahrain on Thursday, for which Horner had not been summoned, they hit out at the truth that the small print of Horner’s supposed misdeeds have been saved non-public.
Wolff, group boss and co-owner at Mercedes, slammed the “fairly primary” media assertion that Pink Bull had put out – and piled extra stress on the FIA and F1 to disclose that their “place” on the matter is.
“I simply assume that as a sport, we can’t afford to go away issues within the imprecise and within the opaque on crucial subjects like this,” stated the Austrian.
“Ultimately … we’re in a brilliant clear world,” Wolff added. “Ultimately issues are going to occur. And I believe we have now the obligation, or the organisation has the obligation, to say ‘properly we’ve checked out it and it’s Okay’ after which we are able to transfer on.
“I believe it’s typically very short-sighted to attempt to, you understand, suppress it.”
Not lengthy after Wolff and McLaren CEO Brown made these feedback, and coinciding with the beginning of afternoon follow for the season opening Bahrain GP, the saga took its subsequent – and darkish – flip.
An e-mail from an nameless account was despatched to each single annually-accredited F1 journalist in 2024, and the entire sport’s main figures together with Stefano Domenicali.
It linked to a tranche of almost 80 screenshots, photographs and movies that Horner and the unnamed feminine workers member had allegedly despatched each other through WhatsApp.
With out diving into the small print, it seems that Horner had clearly had a sexual affair with the lady. La Gazzetta dello Sport characterised the messages as primarily “embarrassing conversations”, which veteran Blick correspondent Roger Benoit admitted had been basically “no one’s enterprise”.
“We’ll go away it to the tabloid media to pounce on the small print,” stated Auto Motor und Sport journalist Tobias Gruner.
In response to a brand new inflow of media enquiries, Horner stated in a press release: “I gained’t touch upon nameless hypothesis, however to reiterate, I’ve at all times denied the allegations.
“It was an intensive and honest investigation carried out by an impartial specialist barrister and it has concluded, dismissing the criticism made.”
In keeping with former F1 driver Giedo van der Garde, the bodily and psychological pressure is clearly exhibiting on Horner.
“You actually discover that he appears affected by this,” he instructed Viaplay. “You’ll be able to see that he (Horner) has misplaced weight, however I believe it’s additionally had an affect on the group.”
One other ex-driver, Christijan Albers, senses that the broader energy battle, now involving Horner’s paddock enemies in addition to the Austrian and Thai shareholding factions at Pink Bull GmbH, remains to be raging.
“It’s a troublesome difficulty, as a result of if nothing was occurring we wouldn’t be speaking about it. Clearly one thing is going on, however nobody is aware of precisely what,” he stated.
Former Pink Bull driver Robert Doornbos instructed NOS: “The competitors will after all be utilizing this to destabilise the group. That in itself is logical and it might additionally occur the opposite approach round.”
As for Pink Bull Racing’s mother or father firm, nonetheless, it now means that it’s strolling away from the affair, calling it a “non-public” matter for Horner.
“This can be a non-public matter between Mr Horner and one other particular person and it might be inappropriate for Pink Bull to touch upon this,” a spokesman instructed De Telegraaf newspaper.
