Sat. Nov 2nd, 2024
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Horner’s wife Geri visited the Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday in an apparent display of unity after the topic had dominated the days leading up to the race.

Geri Horner, a member of pop group the Spice Girls, appeared with her husband, and they were later pictured kissing before the season opening race. Red Bull dominated on the track with champion Max Verstappen winning and team-mate Sergio Perez second.

Although it was a pointed appearance with cameras present, is not uncommon for Geri to appear at a Grand Prix, and that she attends several races each year.

Chalerm Yoovidhya, head of the Thai family that co-owns Red Bull, was also at the race. Yoovidhya declined to answer BBC Sport’s questions.

Asked whether he was concerned that someone did not want the controversy surrounding the complaint against him to stop, Horner said: “I’m not going to comment on what motives, whatever person may have for doing this.

“My focus is on this team, my family, my wife and going racing. I have the support of an incredible family, of an incredible wife, of an incredible team and everybody within that team and my focus is on going racing and winning races and doing the best that I can.”

F1’s governing body the FIA said it was discussing the matter with commercial rights holder F1 Management.

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff and McLaren Racing chief executive officer Zak Brown have both called for the FIA to look into the matter.

Wolff said: “The handling of the situation is very critical for F1. It’s not in the hands of competitors to have any action.

“We should look at ourselves, and what it is we can do to optimise on all these topics, equality and diversity. I am very proud we are at the forefront of that.

“To judge about a person in another team, it is the governing body that needs to judge. They have it in their hands and this is probably where we need to look.

“As a team, if we go beyond what we have said, it looks like it is battle between competitors in F1 and I don’t want to reduce that topic to this level.

“It is a much wider issue that deserves more space and I don’t want to harm the topic by making it an intra-team battle because it is not.

“It is the FIA or the legals who have to look at that. It is outside of the teams’ control.”

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