The embattled Red Bull Racing chief has been left reeling after the trove of intimate texts was revealed just a day after he was cleared of wrongdoing.
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Messages appeared to suggest Horner pestered the woman for pictures behind his wife Geri Halliwell’s back.
The Spice Girls star has been left stunned by the sex texts storm.
Hundreds of WhatsApp messages – sent to F1 teams and media outlets – dropped a day after sources close to 51-year-old Geri said she was “relieved and elated” that Horner was cleared of wrongdoing.
While there don’t appear to be any explicit images in the messages, some of the texts are sexually suggestive in nature.
The move was also calculated to cause maximum damage to Red Bull Racing boss Horner’s career – just 24 hours before the start of the new Grand Prix season in Bahrain.
He was today seen looking on during final practice at Bahrain International Circuit ahead of tomorrow’s season opener.
After the messages were leaked yesterday, Horner again denied accusations made against him.
He said: “I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations.”
“I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way.
“It was a thorough and fair investigation conducted by an independent specialist barrister and it has concluded, dismissing the complaint made.”
Messages appear to indicate he engaged in a secret flirty chat with a female staffer while other texts discuss a solo sex act in an aircraft toilet.
The woman – who works with Horner at the all-conquering grand prix team’s Milton Keynes HQ – apparently tired of her boss’s pleas for pictures and sexy chat, according to the WhatsApp dossier.
She asks him to stop – and even asks how the dad would feel if Geri was behaving in the same way with one of her staff.
Texts also suggest Horner became apologetic as he realised he had caused offence – and responded by asking the woman to delete their entire WhatsApp history.
The mega-leak appeared to be in line with the original accusation faced over alleged “sexually suggestive “ messages sent by Horner.
It was later claimed that the barrister-led inquiry into the team boss was into “controlling and coercive” behaviour towards the woman.
There is no suggestion that any pictures featuring sexual content are included in the WhatApps leaked so far.
A huge file of the messages was sent to a list of team bosses and senior F1 figures yesterday which reads like a Who’s Who of the F1 paddock.
Media sources certain to lift the lid on the scandal were also cc’d on an email under the subject “Christian Horner investigation evidence.”
How Christian Horner’s shock text were leaked
By Ben Hunt
IT was an anonymous email sent and designed for maximum impact.
It landed in my inbox almost 24 hours to the minute since Christian Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing following Red Bull’s internal investigation.
Other names included Liberty Media chief Greg Maffei, who owns the rights to F1. The FIA president, Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Dominacali.
The F1 team bosses were also included for good measure. As was Max Verstappen’s father, Jos.
It was from an anonymous sender, the title was simply the date – ‘Feb Twenty Nine’.
Inside it was a Google Drive link containing 79 files claiming to be the evidence from the independent investigation.
There is no way of knowing if they were real or fake yet irrespectively it sent another shockwave through the F1 paddock before this season had even started.
Horner was sitting on the team’s pitwall during second practice in Bahrain when the email dropped.
After the session, he walked out of the team’s garage and into the hospitality unit where he remained as the nuclear fallout began.
He’d survived the outcome of the internal investigation into improper conduct following a complaint from a female colleague.
One wonders whether he will survive this time after this very public humiliation – again, irrespective if they were indeed real or fake.
Just hours earlier, McLaren’s CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, called on the sport’s governing body, the FIA, demanding transparency.
“I just read the statement, which was pretty basic,” said Wolff. “My personal opinion is we can’t really look behind the curtain.
“There is a lady in an organisation that has spoken to HR and said there was an issue and it was investigated and yesterday the sport has received the message that it’s all fine, we’ve looked at it.
“I believe with the aspiration as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency and I wonder what the sport’s position is?
“We’re competitors, we’re a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not. But it’s more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to assess, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.
“Are we talking with the right moral approach, with the values based on the speculation that is out there? As a sport, we cannot afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical topics like this, because this is going to catch us out.”
Brown added: “It’s the responsibility ultimately of the organisers of Formula One, the owners of Formula One, to make sure that all the racing teams and the personnel and the drivers and everyone else involved in the sport are operating in a manner in which we all live by.
“I don’t think it’s the teams’ roles and responsibilities. That’s up to FIA and Formula One to ultimately decide and ask what they feel gives them the level of transparency they need to ultimately come to their conclusion and we just have to count on them that they fulfil that obligation to all of us.”
The emailed file will only increase that pressure in the form of scrutiny on Horner – who has always denied the accusations.
It does also put Red Bull in a tricky position.
Should the emailed file be legitimate and have made up elements from the initial report, which had been thoroughly examined and presented by the independent KC, then surely this is nothing new to them and their decision to stick with their team principal remains.
To perform a u-turn on that simply now they have become public would possibly see criticism that they intended to keep their report private to save face.
Whatever the outcome, it is a mess for the world champions.
Reports of a wedge driven between Horner and Verstappen’s father have grown in recent weeks.
So it was interesting that Jos Verstappen was in the paddock and wearing a team jacket and seemed unmoved to the chaos happening around him.
Horner says he will be back in the paddock today (FRI) and focused on his role running the team. But at this point it is incredibly difficult to see that happening.
Pictures of the same messages – some including Geri’s name – quickly began spreading on X – formerly known as Twitter.
Horner landed in Bahrain on Wednesday evening minutes before Red Bull confirmed he would remain at the team’s helm.
Geri – who has a six-year-old son Monty with Horner, who has two other children by a previous marriage – was back home in the UK as the texts were released on Thursday.
It is reported she was due to fly to Bahrain before the messages were shared.
The couple were understood to have been locked in long-distance talks as aides attempted to manage the crisis.
It remained unclear whether Geri had been shown any of the messages prior to their distribution.
Geri was said to have been left “in floods of tears” when the scandal first broke earlier this month and was supported by pals including her fellow Spice Girls.
Horner, who married the pop star in 2015, has always vehemently denied the claims and vowed to fight to clear his name.
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A look at Christian Horner’s life and career
CHRISTIAN Horner is among the most well-known names in Formula One having helped build Red Bull into one of the biggest teams in the sport.
1991 – Wins a Formula Renault scholarship after impressing in karting races
1993-1997 – Competed in a host of competitions including British Formula Three, British Formula Two, and Formula 3000
1997 – Founded and developed the F3000 team Arden
1999 – Retired from driving and continued developing the Arden team
2005 – Appointed head of Red Bull team, becoming the youngest ever team principal at that time
2009 – Wins his first races as team principal with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber
2010 – Wins the Constructors’ Championship and Drivers’ Championship with Vettel – the first of four doubles in a row
2013 – Has a daughter with ex-wife Beverly Allen shortly before the couple split
2014 – Gets engaged to Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell
2015 – Marries Halliwell in Woburn, Bedfordshire
2017 – Horner and Halliwell welcome their son
2021 – Wins another Drivers’ Championship with Max Verstappen, beating Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the season
2022-23 – Red Bull win the Drivers’ Championship and Constructors’ Championship two years in a row