It is not often we witness an F1 team seemingly trying to tear itself apart even as it is setting new records of on-track success. The complaint by a female member of staff against Red Bull Racing team principal and CEO Christian Horner has had the effect of pulling back the curtain on an inner power struggle at play within the wider Red Bull organisation and it is not a pretty sight.
At the centre of this controversy is awoman whose case is fully expected to go legal and who feels she has been wronged, first by Horner, subsequently by Red Bull management which cleared Horner after an investigation and then suspended her. She has appealed the decision as the first part of what is expected to be a full legal case. She has also reportedly lodged a complaint with the sport’s governing body claiming Red Bull has breached the FIA’s code of conduct. As the legal case is still ongoing we defer from making any further comment on the merits of her claim with full neutrality.
But the power struggle the case has revealed is now making the headlines and was in play beneath the radar even before the woman’s complaint about Horner’s alleged behaviour. At the time of writing, an uneasy truce seems to have broken out, but not before Max Verstappen responded to rumours of Helmut Marko’s dismissal by stating that if this were to happen, then he would leave too, regardless
