Red Bull Driver Max Verstappen, who is among F1’s top drivers, defended Christian Horner’s racing track record on Friday amid a scandal that’s centered on alleged messages the Red Bull Racing principal sent to a female employee.
Horner was cleared this week during a misconduct probe but has been at the center of the news since Thursday after alleged scandalous texts to the employee were leaked to nearly 200 people — including journalists.
Among the alleged messages to the employee, who reportedly works at Red Bull Racing headquarters in Milton Keynes, England, included comments about the woman stretching her legs open and Spanx, according to The Sun.
Verstappen, who has 54 victories in his career, was asked ahead of Saturday’s Bahrain Grand Prix if he’d continue to back the leadership of Horner.
The 26-year-old racer called Horner “incredible” as a leader of the racing group.
“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,” he said, according to ESPN.
Verstappen added he is focused on the “performance side of things.”
“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.”
Verstappen, who has won the last three consecutive F1 championships — and has a realistic shot at a fourth — added that the team is just focused on winning, despite the recent news.
“From my side, and I think what I can see also from the mechanics and the engineers, we are fully focused on the car and the performance here during the weekend,” he said. “And that’s how it should be, I think, and that’s what we continue to do, because it’s not our business, we’re not particularly involved in that.
Here's everything we know about Christian Horner's sexting scandal
Christian Horner, the team principal of the Red Bull F1 team, is being accused of “inappropriate, controlling behavior” following leaked allegedly salacious messages between him and a female employee.
Horner, who is married to former Spice Girl Gerri Halliwell, allegedly commented to the female employee that it would be good for her to stretch her legs in response to her stating it would be good for him to do so after a long flight, according to reports.
The leak, which was sent to nearly 200 people in a Google document, included nearly 80 images of screenshots with messages to the woman, including: “I keep thinking about Spanx” and “What’s underneath at the moment?”
Horner also allegedly asked the woman for selfies of her in pajamas, and one message referenced what the Daily Mail described as a “solo sex act.”
The employee reportedly asked Horner to stop and attempted to turn the tables by asking him how he would feel if his wife was doing the same thing with an employee, according to reports.
Red Bull Racing cleared Horner of any violations of misconduct following an internal probe.
“I won’t comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations,” Horner said Thursday in a statement.
“And we are here, we are paid to do our job, and that’s what we are doing and that’s also what we love doing. So that’s what we focus on.”
The 50-year-old Horner, who is married to former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, 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.”
According to ESPN, Horner worked as usual on Friday, overseeing Red Bull’s qualifying for the grand prix.
