If Christian Horner got his wish, this messy situation over an accusation of wrongdoing made against him by a staff member would be forgotten by now.
He was cleared of any wrongdoing by Red Bull's parent company before the start of the Formula 1 season last month, and Horner has kept his promise of business as usual. Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez have achieved 1st and 2nd place in the first two races for Red Bull. Horner, along with his former pop star wife, has celebrated as Verstappen has won 18 out of the last 20 races.
Horner complained after the second Red Bull victory: 'Enough is enough about the personal stuff, I think it is time now to draw a line under it.'
The issue does not seem to be disappearing.
The investigation into Horner will be a major topic when F1 goes to Melbourne for the Australian Grand Prix this week. The employee who accused Horner of wrongdoing has been suspended by Red Bull.
The employee has now hired a communications team, according to The Associated Press. The employee has appealed Red Bull's clearance of Horner and as of the end of last week, had filed a formal complaint with F1's governing body FIA, as confirmed by the communications firm on Monday.
The FIA states that any complaint will be handled by an independent compliance officer and ethics committee, separate from the FIA, which is currently investigating its own president over two whistleblower complaints. If that seems contradictory, welcome to the party.
F1 and its American owner, Liberty Media Co., have remained silent. Neither has any legal standing to take action against Red Bull Racing; F1 says it's up to the FIA.
Only one of Red Bull’s sponsors has publicly demanded answers, and Ford Motor Co. found that Red Bull really doesn’t care what its future engine partner wants to know. The report that cleared Horner of wrongdoing has reportedly been withheld from anyone who has asked to see it, including stakeholders with millions pegged on the stability and excellence of Red Bull and its competitors.
So the season has continued, with Red Bull dominating. Horner has remained in his role as team principal, with his wife, Geri Halliwell, by his side in celebratory support.
The easy joke is to wonder if all this drama will lead to a 2-hour Netflix special on “Drive To Survive,” but the truth is that serious allegations are being ignored without transparency and almost certainly without the approval of the employee who brought the complaint.
Wouldn't F1 cease to be a real sport if there is no official action to investigate Red Bull?
Red Bull would definitely face greater scrutiny if it operated as a US team. The NFL, NBA, or MLB would all investigate Red Bull and have addressed this a month ago before it became a critical moment in a test of the entire series. Even if some details were kept private, punishments would still be imposed.
The FIA regulations required someone to make a complaint, and now, officially, a complaint has been made.
Someone needs to take charge and move this towards a solution, to demonstrate leadership of a series that has only continued to gain popularity for over a decade. The FIA appears powerless in this situation; it is still recovering from its investigation during the offseason into the potential sharing of information between Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, and his wife, Susie, who is an F1 employee as the head of the F1 Academy.
The FIA stated that there was a complaint; the next day, all nine other teams issued similarly worded statements denying they had complained, and the FIA promptly closed the investigation. Susie Wolf is still waiting for an apology from the FIA.
This issue has dominated all discussions in F1. Nothing else is currently important, from Lewis Hamilton's final season at Mercedes and the leadership changes at Haas to Michael Andretti's unsuccessful attempt to enter F1 and the FIA's other investigations. All of that is less important than Red Bull telling everyone to focus on their own matters.
Someone must demonstrate what kind of business F1 truly is by demanding more from Red Bull. Whether it's F1, the FIA, or every sponsor currently associated with Red Bull, someone needs to resolve this situation.
Or is everyone simply going to believe Red Bull's statement?
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AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
