{"id":371604,"date":"2024-02-29T18:43:03","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T19:43:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371604"},"modified":"2024-02-29T21:03:20","modified_gmt":"2024-02-29T21:03:20","slug":"horner-texts-leaked-during-f1-season-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=371604","title":{"rendered":"Horner texts leaked during F1 season opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Bull<\/a> principal Christian Horner<\/a> dismissed \u201canonymous speculation\u201d after alleged evidence in his misconduct investigation was widely distributed on Thursday, two days before his team opens its bid for a fourth consecutive Formula 1<\/a> championship.<\/p>\n

His statement was forced by a stunning off-track development: As the second practice was going on for the Bahrain Grand Prix, a file alleged to contain evidence presented against Horner was emailed to nearly 200 people in the F1 paddock, including Liberty Media, F1, the FIA, the other nine team principals and multiple media outlets.<\/p>\n

The authenticity of the files has not been verified by The Associated Press; the file came from a generic email account.<\/p>\n

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The files were sent one day after the team\u2019s parent company dismissed a complaint that alleged misconduct by Horner toward a team employee. He was at the practice when the files were sent.<\/p>\n

\u201cI won\u2019t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,\u201d Horner said in a statement read to journalists by a team spokesman; the statement was from Horner, not on behalf of Red Bull.<\/p>\n

\"Christian<\/p>\n

\u201cI respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way," Horner said. "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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Details of the allegations involving Horner have not been made public. The Red Bull company said the complainant has a right to appeal the decision.<\/p>\n

The 50-year-old Horner has been the team principal since Red Bull entered F1 as a full constructor in 2005. He has guided the team to six constructors\u2019 championships and seven drivers\u2019 championships. Red Bull won all but one of the 22 races last season, with 19 wins for Max Verstappen, the three-time champion. Its redesigned car is widely considered the fastest on the grid for 2024 going into Sunday's season opener.<\/p>\n

McLaren team principal Zak Brown said F1 and governing body the FIA should seek to re-examine Red Bull\u2019s decision to dismiss the complaint.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom what I\u2019ve seen, there continues to be a lot of rumors and speculation, questions," Brown said shortly before the anonymous email was sent. "I think the sanctioning body has a responsibility and authority to our sport, to our fans. All of us in Formula 1 are ambassadors for the sport on and off the track, like you see in other sports. And so I think they need to make sure that things have been fully transparent with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff called the statement from Red Bull, which did not include any details of the investigation, \u201cpretty basic\u201d and said F1 \u201cneeds more transparency\u201d on the issue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI just simply think that as a sport, we cannot afford to leave things in the vague and in the opaque on critical topics like this because it\u2019s going to catch us out,\u201d he said, also speaking before the anonymous email.<\/p>\n

Horner, who remained in his role as Red Bull team principal during the internal investigation, led Red Bull during Thursday practice and said his team was more unified than ever heading into the new season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just pleased that the process is over,\u201d Horner told British broadcaster Sky Sports News, speaking before Wolff and Brown\u2019s comments. \u201cI obviously can\u2019t comment about it, but we\u2019re here very much to focus now on the grand prix and the season ahead and trying to defend both of our titles.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if the team was unified, he said: \u201cWithin the team it\u2019s never been stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Bull principal Christian Horner dismissed \u201canonymous speculation\u201d after alleged evidence in his misconduct investigation was widely distributed on Thursday, two days before his team […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":371607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371604"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=371604"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":371613,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371604\/revisions\/371613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/371607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=371604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=371604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=371604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}