Female employee ‘very unhappy’ F1 boss Christian Horner was cleared in Red Bull probe

Sports

By Bridget Reilly

The Red Bull Racing female employee, who has accused Christian Horner of inappropriate behavior through alleged messages, has spoken out through a close source, according a report by the Daily Mail on Friday.

According to the report, the woman feels “very unhappy” about Red Bull’s decision on Wednesday to clear Horner, team principal of the Red Bull F1 team, in its investigation into the alleged claims of “coercive behavior.”

She also mentioned, per the Daily Mail, that the investigation feels “one-sided.”

The woman in question reportedly worked with Horner at Red Bull Racing’s headquarters in Milton Keynes.

Though Horner was cleared in the Red Bull investigation, a leak of alleged texts between him and the female employee surfaced this week — including alleged comments about stretching her legs open and Spanx.

The files were distributed to nearly 200 people from a generic email account, according to the Associated Press.

There didn’t appear to be any sexual images in the WhatsApp leak, The Sun reported.

Horner, 50, has denied the allegations against him.

“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,” Horner said Thursday in a statement.

“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. I remain fully focused on the start of the season.”

A source told the DailyMail that there was no relationship between Horner and the female employee.

“It’s obviously not going to rest now because of these leaks,” the source told the DailyMail. “I wasn’t aware of the messages prior to them being picked up by the media and I have no idea at all who is responsible for the leak. You always believe your own, don’t you? I haven’t read the text messages but there was never any relationship between her and Christian — God, no. She doesn’t discuss that sort of stuff with us.

“If you work for a person like him, you live with many pieces of information that are not to be disclosed. She certainly hasn’t spoken to me about it. We speak every day and she’s very unhappy — of course. In her way of thinking it’s all very one-sided and she’s been crucified.”

The employee, who is still believed to be employed by the organization, has reportedly remained at home in the United Kingdom and has not traveled with Red Bull and Horner for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

According to ESPN, Horner continued his regular work schedule on Friday and watched over qualifying.

Horner is married to former Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell, whom friends worry will be crushed by this recent avalanche of alleged exchanges.

“The tears stopped when the judgment came in on Wednesday, now they absolutely will have started again,” one source told the Daily Mail.

“This will destroy her. All along Christian promised there was nothing in it.”

Halliwell is reportedly planning to be at Saturday’s grand prix out of solidarity alongside Horner despite having gone “into meltdown” over the alleged messages after landing in Bahrain on Thursday night.

Horner has been the team principal for Red Bull since 2005.

Star Red Bull Racing driver was pressed Friday if he still has confidence in Horner.

“Listen, when I look at how Christian operates within the team, he has been an incredible team boss, so absolutely, from the performance side of things, you can’t even question that,” the driver said, according to ESPN.

“So that’s what I’m also dealing with. I speak to Christian a lot, and also throughout the weekend here, he’s fully committed to the team, he’s also here for the performance. Of course probably a little bit distracted. But like I said before, we just focus on the performance side of things, and that’s how we all work together.”