New leak reignites Horner, Red Bull Racing scandal
Zafir Nagji, Staff Writer |
For the past three Formula One seasons, Red Bull Racing has been all but invincible. Sure, Carlos Sainz stole a race victory from them in Singapore in 2023 for Ferrari, and George Russell took home P1 at the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix for Mercedes-AMG. Still, these are aberrations in what were otherwise perfect seasons on the track for the energy drink brand.
Off the track, though, the Austrian team has found themselves in a series of controversies. The FIA, motorsport’s governing body, found Red Bull guilty of breaching the 2021 Cost Cap of £118,036,000 by 1.6%, or £1,864,000, which resulted in a $7 million USD fine and sporting penalties that included a 10% reduction in their allocated Restricted Wind Tunnel Testing and Restricted Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) limits.
Team Consultant Helmut Marko found himself in hot water after making offensive remarks about driver Sergio Perez on two separate occasions in 2023, the first of which came after the Italian Grand Prix at Monza when Perez struggled in qualifying sessions.
“We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form, he is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel],” he said then.
This statement, beyond its offensiveness, was also inaccurate, as Perez is from Guadalajara, which is geographically in Mexico, North America. Even if he was from South America, the statement is still erroneous as South America has produced more Formula One World Champions than any other country other than Britain. Still, at least he made it worse when he attempted to clarify his comments days later.
“It wasn’t meant that way. I meant that a Mexican has a different mentality than a German or a Dutchman.” Marko said.
He would later issue a public apology, stating that attributing Perez’s struggles to cultural heritage and generalizing about people from any country, race, or ethnicity is wrong. Perez also mentioned that Marko privately apologized to him, making clear that he was unoffended by the comments because of their “personal relationship.”
“Knowing the person helps a lot because I know he doesn’t mean it that way,” Perez said. “Let’s say if those comments were [from] a different perspective or so on, I would have taken them differently. To me, it’s just how things are, and I didn’t get them personal.”
As the race wins and championships rolled in, though, the backlash over these xenophobic comments and the team’s overspending quieted down and for a while, there was little to no controversy in the Red Bull Racing’s garage. That is until Team Principal Christian Horner was accused in early February of inappropriate and controlling behaviour with a female coworker.
The larger Red Bull GmbH company launched an internal investigation and even hired an external specialist barrister to analyze the situation. Horner was still allowed to work as team principal during the investigation, as pre-season testing had already been underway and the first grand prix of the season in Bahrain was less than a week away. The investigation concluded on Feb. 28 and Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing, but this was far from the end of the ugly saga.
Less than 24 hours after the grievance was dismissed, a Google Drive folder containing 79 screenshots of WhatsApp messages, allegedly from Horner to his accuser, was leaked to 150 members of the Formula 1 paddock, including the other nine team principles, FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali, and members of the media.
Rumours swirled around the paddock about who was responsible for the leak, and many sources believed that Jos Verstappen, father of three-time Driver’s Champion and current leader in the 2024 championship, Max Verstappen, teamed up with Horner’s accuser to release these images.
As it stands, the Red Bull employee who lodged the initial complaint has now filed for an appeal on the decision to dismiss the grievance. Horner, on the other hand, is depending on his close ties to the Yoovidhya family, who own 51 per cent of the Red Bull GmbH company, to keep him on the team. Ralf Schumacher, former German motorsport driver and brother of iconic Formula One driver, Michael Schumacher, called for Horner to “resign as soon as possible” because of the potential damage this scandal will cause to the Red Bull brand.
Either way, the motorsport spectacle continues, with upcoming races in Japan on April 7th, China on April 21st, and May 5th in Miami, and Red Bull still at the top of the pyramid.
