Formula 1 2024 – WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS

Apparently, the investigation into Horner is now over with an announcement due tomorrow or Wednesday.

Source: Sky Sports

I don’t follow the theory some of the above are suggesting that someone in the Verstappen camp is (partially, at least) trying to oust Horner. To what end? MV recently signed a long term deal and comfortably trounced the entire field last year…

Why would anyone in that position want to rock the boat so severely? 🤷

I didnt think it made much sense at first, then i saw who was in the frame and reasonable isn’t a word you’d use to describe them.

“Why would anyone in that position want to rock the boat so severely? 🤷”

This does make total sense, but also it won’t be the first time that someone greedy has done something stupid

Karen leaving work this evening!…

Lolipopman is back

Why is Sainz played by Sean Connery lol

Now back to Karen…! 🙂

My new theory is this – the delay isn’t whether he’s done anything wrong or it. It’s actually Horner’s lawyers fighting RBF1’s lawyers.

If he’s found guilty of gross misconduct he could easily by let go immediately, contract wripped up and without any severance pay. He could be fighting for millions in severance, not to keep his job.

IANAL – this is pure speculation!

Lolipopman is back

The detail in that is great! 👍

My theory is that the decision has already been made, Horner may already be sat at home making new plans for the rest of the year, but RedBull are timing the news release so (they hope) it immediately disappears amongst the press whirlwind surrounding the first race.

Thepurist +1. If he was clear they would have announced immediately, they are using 24-48hrs to reorganise the F1 team for the season… …is my own speculation.

I’m not convinced….i think that if they thought it was that serious they’d have suspended him pending the result, not have him turn up for the launch and testing.

I’d love to be wrong tho….him and Lawrence Stroll both seem odious to me

i think that if they thought it was that serious they’d have suspended him pending the result, not have him turn up for the launch and testing.[/]

That approach is only an idea put forward by the opposition / critics of the person being accused of something. You hear it a lot in politics with politicians being shouted at to stand down pending the enquiry into their affairs. In reality the enquiry is there to delay any decisions long enough for the public to lose interest so the whole matter can be quietly ignored.

A less jaded view is that the person is innocent until proven guilty so why should their life be adversely affected by so random accusation before any proper evaluation of the evidence and facts.

I did chuckle at the Drive To Survive episode where the Horners’ personal Santa turns up, nods at Christian and asks, “has he been a good boy this year?”—then a beat before anyone replies 😂

I wonder if that was a late edit—presumably also the end of the Mercedes episode which is signed off by Lewis saying “I can’t see myself ever being anywhere other than Mercedes”.

I just watched ep 1 of DTS, every time a woman wearing the Red Bull team uniform appeared I just couldn’t stop from wondering, “Was it you he sent his dick pics to?”

My theory is that it’s more about how they take the right action without upsetting the likes of ford and other sponsors and potentially loosing Newey. I imagine ford and others would not be happy if he left and left them looking for a new chief deisnger.

Maybe they are just counting out the hush money to make it go away?

I don’t think Christian will be going anywhere. There may be disciplinary action and training, possibly even some change in leadership roles (an additional person to facilitate better decision making/supervising), but I genuinely can’t imagine that what he’s done will warrant summary dismissal.

If he does stay, are they going to boycott any journo’s that ask the wrong questions?

Essentially giving ch4 exclusive access 😉

change in leadership roles

No wimmins in immediate vicinity of Horner?   Rubbish.   If there is a mysoginistic, bullying or sexual misdemeanour  the message needs to be strong and that’s clear from Fords statement.  Horner will need to be offered a punishment for everyone to be aware of.

Unless of course a payoff happens, in which case we can expect it to rumble into the future as leaks happen, they’ll be a lot of pressure to not sign an NDA against the victims integrity.

my bet (based on a deep cynicism for how rich and powerful men are protected by other rich and powerful ment):
he stays as team principal, but….

RBHQ parachute in some goon to replace him as chief exec.

leaves end of season/contract and waltzes off into the sunset driving a dumpertruck full of money (with ginger spice swimming in it). Newey leaves too and spends more time with his new yacht

A less jaded view is that the person is innocent until proven guilty so why should their life be adversely affected by so random accusation before any proper evaluation of the evidence and facts.

It cuts both ways though. If both are still employed, it’s not unreasonable where the matter is of this level of seriousness and there’s (on the face of it) some credible evidence to back-up the claim for the accused to be suspended while the investigation goes ahead. If the seniority of the accused and accuser are wildly different, then removing the more senior from the business so there can be no influence on the more junior member of staff is a wise move. I can see why sponsors are looking at the situation RB have now created (Horner at testing pretending everything is fine) and are not massively impressed.

Maybe they are just counting out the hush money to make it go away?

I think the days of forcing female staff-members who’ve accused their bosses of inappropriate behaviour to sign NDA and have piles of cash pushed at them to go away, are thankfully past us.

I think the days of forcing female staff-members who’ve accused their bosses of inappropriate behaviour to sign NDA and have piles of cash pushed at them to go away, are thankfully past us.

Wasn’t the figure of £650,000 mentioned somewhere above in this thread?

@Rich_s, no I specifically meant female members of staff who’s boss’s have made unwelcome advances. While I’ve no doubt that this does apply to male members of staff, it’s been a tactic overwhelmingly applied to more junior female staff members by their overwhelmingly male senior colleagues in an effort to protect themselves who then get to carry on in-post as if nothing has happened.

If that’s what’s going on at RB, it would be very disappointing

I think the days of forcing female staff-members who’ve accused their bosses of inappropriate behaviour to sign NDA and have piles of cash pushed at them to go away, are thankfully past us.

If they take the cash and sign an NDA, you’ll never know about it so it’s impossible to know how common it is.

Wasn’t the figure of £650,000 mentioned somewhere above in this thread?

There was something about it in the machine translated Dutch article but it wasn’t clear to me…could have meant Horner’s lawyers offered her a bung to keep quiet, but not sure

If they take the cash and sign an NDA, you’ll never know about it so it’s impossible to know how common it is.

If the whole paddock really does know what’s going on then it’ll come out sooner or later via a different channel

It was thought the practice was significant enough that Parliament discussed their use as part of a debate on sexual harassment 

More than 70 women accused Harvey Weinstein of abuse, I’ve no idea how many NDA there are floating around out there, but its not nil and he’s just one man.

https://www.npr.org/2023/01/26/1151611189/ex-staffer-sues-fox-news-and-former-trump-aide-over-sexual-abuse-claims

This is full on mucking fental….

As they said – shame that last lap wasn’t a dry one – but then it was also a great way to see how the aerodynamics affect the spray pattern.

Shows how many slips and slides the car does in the wet that you just wouldn’t normally see. The car was really squirming for grip.

PlanetF1 says the decision that Horner is staying won’t be announced until Thursday*

* i may be paraphrasing 😁

I did some searching/stalking yesterday and found the private jet Horner uses a lot or potentially owns. It was at Farnborough airport and had been for a few days as thats where its based. It has departed this morning at 8.14 and it is currently heading over France…

You know that’s only just *this* side of pretty weird, right?

The meeting was said to be in Austria – so timeline fits! 🙂

That is some next level stalking…..sorry, I mean “research” 😂

According to Twitter he’s on his way to Bahrain…if true then he’s been cleared i guess?

If you worked for Red Bull, and had a serious complaint about Horner or any of the other “important employees” why would you expect a fair hearing ?

Slater explained on Sky Sports News: “What I can reveal is that Christian Horner is on a plane and is flying over to Bahrain now. He’s on his way here. What I can also tell you and I know this for a fact he doesn’t know the outcome of this investigation into allegations of inappropriate behaviour made by Horner, by a female member of staff.

“He’s come here without knowing how this has been resolved one way or the other. It’s I suppose a continuation of him saying ‘business as usual’ that he denies the allegations and he wants to continue with his job.

“He should arrive here this evening. Will we get an outcome this evening? I have been reporting consistently that my understanding was we would get something before the start of the season.”