Red Bull expects for its statement announcing the completion of the Christian Horner inquiry to be the final word on the subject.
It is unclear whether this will be the case. However, there is no doubt that Red Bull has avoided destabilising their championship-winning team on the eve of the new season by retaining Horner in position.
Over three weeks had elapsed since Red Bull’s Austrian owners declared that a “independent” inquiry into the charges made against Horner had commenced, employing a “external specialist barrister”. Today, it just stated that “the grievance has been dismissed” and provided no further information about what Horner was accused of.
“The investigation report is confidential and contains the private information of the parties and third parties who assisted in the investigation, and therefore we will not be commenting further out of respect for all concerned,” Red Bull said in a press release.
However, other newspapers made accusations about what Horner was accused of, and many in F1 were unhappy with what they saw. “The allegations are extremely serious,” stated McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown. “We need to handle it swiftly because I don’t believe these are the type of headlines that Formula 1 wants or needs at this time.”
Formula One Management also stated that they sought a swift settlement. “We hope that the matter will be clarified at the earliest opportunity, after a fair and thorough process and we will not comment further at this time,” the statement stated.
However, the disclosure three days ago of a story of a letter from Ford, Red Bull’s 2026 engine partner, to the team demonstrated how seriously they took the issue and how concerned they were about the length of time it was taking to rectify it. Ford CEO Jim Farley stated that they were “increasingly frustrated” with the “lack of resolution or clear indication from you about when you anticipate a fair and just resolution of this matter.”
