9 months ago
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CHRISTIAN Horner’s accuser believes she’s been “crucified” and has slammed Red Bull’s “one-sided” investigation amid the ‘sexts’ leak.
The female employee who accused the F1 boss of “inappropriate behaviour” is allegedly “very unhappy” with the way the probe has been handled.
PA
RexJust 48 hours ago Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing by Red Bull, before shocking ‘sexts’ were leaked yesterday.
The messages appear to suggest Horner pestered the woman for pictures behind his wife Geri Halliwell’s back.
Horner’s accuser has remained anonymous but the MailOnline claim to have spoken to a source close to her.
They reported the insider told them: “My reaction to all this is that it is disgusting.
“In the words of Red Bull, Christian Horner has been cleared but I think many people look at that answer and can’t quite fathom out the truth behind it.”
They said they have no idea who leaked the messages and added: “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 insider admitted they have not read the texts personally but claimed “there was never any relationship between her and Christian”.
“Are the Red Bull investigation team independent? Who knows?,” the source questioned.
They alleged while Horner had been questioned for 12 hours, the accuser had been “grilled” for “a lot more than that”.
Despite the scandal, Horner looked unfazed this afternoon as he stood trackside in Bahrain for a test run ahead of tomorrow’s F1 season opener.
The dad, 50, was pictured with headphones around his neck as he chatted to Max Verstappen at the Bahrain International Circuit.
But, he is understood to have left before the end of the practice for a meeting with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, Sky F1 correspondent Ted Kravitz reported.
Earlier today, pictures showed F1 chief Horner chatting to colleagues as he sat at a table with them.
Geri has not yet been seen in the paddock, however.
‘SEXTS’ LEAK
It comes after leaked images of the explosive messages were shared online and on social media.
One text exchange appears to show him sending her a snap of him in the airport after landing, to which she says “Be good to stretch your legs”.
He replies “Exactly”, before playfully writing “Good to stretch yours” followed by a laughing emoji.
Horner writes “call any time” in a message to the woman, before telling her he doesn’t “have a sleep mode” with a smiley emoji.
In another he asks if she is “Still in the Spanx?” to which the woman writes “Yep, what do you like about them so much?”.
The tears stopped when the judgment came in on Wednesday, now they absolutely will have started again. This will destroy her.”
Source close to Geri HalliwellHorner replies “You look very attractive in them. You must know that.”
When she hits back with “They are just leggings”, he says “But it’s what’s in them that counts!”.
Another conversation between Horner and the employee reveal him repeatedly asking her to delete their “entire chat”.
He writes “Did you delete the entire chat?
“Sorry to chase but did you delete?
“I really would prefer if you did like I did so there is a fresh start.”
The woman – who works with Horner at the all-conquering grand prix team’s Milton Keynes HQ – eventually asks him to back off.
In one text she even asks how the dad would feel if Geri was behaving in the same way with one of her staff.
‘THIS WILL DESTROY HER’
Since the leaks it has been reported Geri’s marriage is now “in question”.
The Spice Girls singer has again been left “extremely humiliated” after believing he was in the clear.
Friends of Geri fear the latest bombshell will “destroy” the mum-of-two, who shares seven-year-old son Monty with Horner.
One pal told the Mail: “It has all come crashing down.
“The tears stopped when the judgment came in on Wednesday, now they absolutely will have started again. This will destroy her.
“All along Christian promised there was nothing in it.”
RED BULL INVESTIGATION
It came after weeks of speculation over Horner’s future running the all-conquering team of F1 world champion Max Verstappen.
A Red Bull Austria spokesman said: “The independent investigation into the allegations made against Mr Horner is complete, and Red Bull can confirm that the grievance has been dismissed.”
The team’s parent company confirmed the complainant “has a right of appeal”.
The spokesman added: “Red Bull is confident that the investigation has been fair, rigorous and impartial.
“The investigation report is confidential and contains the private information of the parties and third parties who assisted in the investigation, and therefore we will not be commenting further out of respect for all concerned.
“Red Bull will continue striving to meet the highest workplace standards.”
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
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Messages between Horner and the female employee
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