Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the head of the FIA, is worried that Christian Horner’s controversy is “damaging the sport” because the Red Bull CEO is still being questioned about “inappropriate behavior.”
The continuing story involving Christian Horner and Red Bull is “damaging the sport,” according to FIA chief Mohammed Ben Sulayem.
On the eve of this weekend’s Bahrain Grand Prix, Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing in an internal investigation despite accusations of “inappropriate behaviour” from a female staff member. Since then, allegedly between Horner and the employee, messages and pictures have been leaked.
Red Bull tried to put a stop to the problem a day earlier, but after the most recent development on Thursday, the rumors have persisted. Additionally, the man in charge of Formula 1 acknowledges that it is not a good look for the sport ahead of the start of the season.
“It’s damaging the sport… this is damaging on a human level,” Ben Sulayem stated to the Financial Times. The head of the FIA did, however, clarify that since they had not yet received a formal complaint, the regulatory body had no plans to launch their own investigation.
Horner has refuted any misconduct and declined to address conjecture. He did, however, reiterate his stance on the subject in a statement that was released on Thursday night.
“To reiterate, I have always denied the allegations, but I will not comment on anonymous speculation,” he stated. “I completely cooperated with the independent investigation at every stage, respecting its objectivity. An impartial specialist barrister carried out a comprehensive and impartial investigation, which resulted in the complaint being dismissed. I’m still completely focused on the beginning of the season.”
But as the situation engulfs the sport, a few of his colleagues, including McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff, want to see more clarity.
“I think it’s impossible to look behind the curtain,” stated Wolff. In the end of the day, a woman in an organization has informed HR that there is a problem. After an investigation, the sport received word yesterday that everything was OK. We have examined it.
“And I believe that with the aspirations as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency and I wonder what the sport’s position is. We are competitors, we are 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.”
According to Brown, “I believe the sanctioning body has an authority and responsibility to our officials and our sport.” Like you see in other sports, I believe that all of us in Formula 1 are ambassadors for the sport both on and off the track, so I believe they should make sure that everything has been completely transparent with them.
“And I’m not sure what those conversations are about, but they need to be exhaustive, completely transparent, and they need to agree with the outcome and reach the same conclusion as Red Bull. However, I believe that until then, there will be conjecture since there are a lot of unsolved questions regarding the entire procedure.
“So I think that’s what’s needed by those that run the sport to really be able to draw a line under it. Until then, I think there’ll continue to be some level of speculation by people and I don’t think that’s healthy for the sport.”
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