With the Formula 1 season just one week away, Red Bull team president Christian Horner has expressed his
desire that the investigation into his alleged misbehavior will be concluded “as soon as possible.”
On February 5, Red Bull announced that it was looking into claims of wrongdoing involving a team member.
Horner has kept up his work and refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing, although no completion date for the
probe has been disclosed.
“I’m really not at liberty to comment about the process, but everybody would like a conclusion as soon as
possible,” Horner remarked on Thursday during the second of three days of preseason testing in Bahrain.
F1 and the regulatory body FIA have both called for a speedy conclusion to the probe in past statements.
Zak Brown, the CEO of McLaren, expressed his expectation on Thursday that the probe will be “handled in a very
transparent way” in response to Toto Wolff of Mercedes making a similar request the day before.
On Thursday, Horner responded angrily to Brown’s criticism of the energy drink company’s ownership of two
Formula One teams and their tight relationships.
Brown has been pleading with the governing FIA to reevaluate the regulations that permitted what he has
referred to as an A and B team partnership. Champions Closer collaboration with the new RB team, which placed
seventh in 2023 as AlphaTauri, might make Red Bull’s sister team far more competitive. Red Bull won 21 of the
22 races in the previous season.
During preseason testing, Brown told a news conference hosted by the FIA that he was unaware of any other sport
where co-ownership of two rival teams was permitted.
Reporters were reminded by Horner that Red Bull also owned two Champions League soccer teams.
This year’s top European club competition saw RB Leipzig of Germany and RB Salzburg of Austria advance to the
group stages, with the latter team finishing in the last 16.
Horner also remembered how Dietrich Mateschitz, the late creator of Red Bull, kept the sport alive during the
COVID pandemic by staying behind after manufacturers departed to preserve Minardi from bankruptcy in 2005
by renaming it Toro Rosso.
He asserted that rather than being “derided,” Red Bull should be commended for that.
“There is no overlap between the two teams. Two are based in the UK and Italy, respectively. He made reference
to Red Bull and Ferrari by saying, “The one that is based in Italy has a far larger turnover of staff that end up in
Maranello than end up in Milton Keynes.”
He went on, “We expect them to be a competitor, not just of Red Bull Racing but of the rest of the field.” “There
aren’t any predetermined guidelines or agreements among the teams.
“I find it hard to understand the commotion surrounding it; in my opinion, it’s not a big deal.”
Using Reuters
