CHRISTIAN Horner appears to have harassed an employee over the photos, a series of leaked private texts suggests.
A huge collection of intimate messages sent by the F1 boss has been exposed and has revealed a secret flirtatious conversation behind the woman’s back.
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Leaked messages suggest F1 boss harassed female employee over photos Credit: Getty
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After a three-week internal investigation, Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing Credit: Rex
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The texts were leaked while the Red Bull boss was in Bahrain at the start of the seasonCredit: Getty
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Some of the text mentions Horner’s wife Geri HalliwellCredit: Getty
The woman at the center of Red Bull’s sexting scandal reportedly asked her boss Christian Horner, 50, “How would you feel if your wife Geri Halliwell did that?”
Although the messages do not appear to contain explicit images, some texts are of a sexually suggestive nature.
Hundreds of flirtatious WhatsApp sex messages that appeared to suggest Horner was harassing a woman for a photo shoot were sent to F1 teams and media outlets.
Other messages talk about a solo sex act in the lavatory of the plane on the way to Dubai.
The woman – who works with Horner at the all-time Grand Prix team’s headquarters in Milton Keynes – is apparently fed up with her boss’ requests for pictures and sexy chat, according to the WhatsApp file.
The move is also calculated to do maximum damage to Red Bull Racing boss Horner’s career – just 24 hours before the start of the new Bahrain Grand Prix season.
Horner said: “I will not comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations.”
“I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it at every step.
“It was a thorough and fair investigation by an independent specialist solicitor and she concluded, dismissing the complaint that had been lodged.”
She asks him to stop – and even asks him how the married father would feel if Geri behaved the same way with some of her staff.
Christian Horner acquitted after investigation into ‘inappropriate behaviour’
The mega-leak appears to be consistent with the original charge he faced over alleged “sexually suggestive” messages sent by Horner.
It was later claimed that a lawyer-led investigation into the team boss was about “controlling and coercive” behavior towards the woman.
There is no suggestion that sexually explicit images are included in the leaked WhatApps so far.
A huge file of messages was sent yesterday to a list of team bosses and senior F1 figures that read like a Who’s Who of the F1 paddock.
Media sources sure to shed light on the scandal were also sent as a copy to an email entitled “Evidence of the Christian Horner Inquiry”.
Images of the same messages – some including Geri’s name – quickly began to spread on Xu – formerly known as Twitter.
It comes as his wife Geri Halliwell was left stunned by the dramatic twist after she was reportedly “relieved and elated” that Horner had been cleared of wrongdoing.
The 51-year-old was supposed to fly to Bahrain today to join her husband.
Team principal Horner arrived in Bahrain on Thursday and proudly announced that his team – led by world champion Max Verstappen – had “never been stronger” yesterday morning.
But Red Bull Racing and the team’s Austrian parent company have been paralyzed by the fallout from the scandal and did not respond to requests for comment.
Geri – who has six-year-old son Monty with Horner, who has two other children from a previous marriage – was at home in the UK when the messages were published.
The pair are understood to have been in long-distance conversations as aides tried to resolve the crisis.
It remained unclear whether Geri was shown any of the messages before they were distributed.
But all traces of elation in Horner’s camp after his release just a day earlier appear to have disappeared as sources close to him have gone public.
Ginger Spice Geri endured three weeks of ordeal in which, they say, she stood by her man.
A source close to Horner told The Sun on Wednesday: “These have been weeks of hell for Christian and his family and – as he has said all along – these claims are ‘crazy’.
“A thorough investigation was conducted and the allegations were found to be nonsense.”
Horner earlier hailed Geri, revealing: “I have a very supportive family and a very supportive wife.
“My focus was on work and the season ahead. I won’t talk about private things, but my family was a big support.”
The former Horner racing driver’s action was secured after an internal three-week investigation dismissed claims by an unidentified female employee or “coercive behaviour”.
Geri was said to have been left “in tears” when the scandal first broke earlier this month, with friends including her Spice Girls co-stars supporting her.
She was by his side recently as the pair cheered on their horse in the point-to-point horse races at Badbury Rings, Dorset.”
How Christian Horner’s shocking text was leaked
By BenHunt
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 an internal investigation by Red Bull.
Other names included Liberty Media boss Greg Maffei, which owns the rights to F1. FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Dominacali.
F1 team bosses were also included for good measure. Like Max Verstappen’s father, Jos.
It was from an anonymous sender, the title was just the date – ‘February twenty-ninth’.
In it was a link to a Google Drive with 79 files that claimed to be evidence from an independent investigation.
There’s no way of knowing whether they were real or fake, but regardless, it sent another shockwave through the F1 paddock before this season had even started.
Horner was sitting on the team during the second practice session in Bahrain when the email went down.
After the session, he walked out of the team garage and into the hospitality unit where he stayed as the nuclear fallout began.
He survived the outcome of an internal investigation into misconduct following a complaint from a female colleague.
He wonders if he will survive this public humiliation again – again, regardless of whether they were real or fake.
Just hours earlier, McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes boss Toto Wolff called the sport’s governing body, the FIA, demanding transparency.
“I just read the statement, which was pretty basic,” Wolff said. “My personal opinion is that we can’t really look behind the curtain.
“There is a lady in the organization who talked to HR and said that there was a problem and that it was investigated and yesterday the sport received a message that everything is fine, we looked into it.
“I believe that with the aspiration to be a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency and I wonder what is the position of the sport?
“We are competitors, we are a team and we can have our personal opinion or not. But it is more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to evaluate, what is right in that situation and what is not.
“Are we talking with the right moral approach, with values based on the speculation that exists? As a sport, we can’t afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical topics like this, because this will catch us back.”
Brown added: “Ultimately it is the responsibility of the organizers of Formula 1, the owners of Formula 1, to ensure that all the racing teams and the staff and the drivers and everyone else involved in the sport operate in the way that everyone lives by.
“I don’t think it’s about the roles and responsibilities of the teams. It’s up to the FIA and Formula 1 to finally decide and ask what they think gives them the level of transparency they need to ultimately come to a conclusion, and we just have to count on that fulfill that obligation to all of us.”
The emailed dossier will only add to that pressure in the form of scrutinizing Horner – who has always denied the allegations.
It also puts Red Bull in an awkward position.
If the emailed file is legitimate and contains elements from the initial report, which have been thoroughly examined and presented by an independent CC, then this is certainly nothing new to them and their decision to stay with their team leader stands.
The twist that simply now that they went public would likely see criticism that they intended to keep their report private to save face.
Regardless of the outcome, it’s a mess for the world champions. Reports of a conflict between Horner and Verstappen’s father have grown in recent weeks.
So it was interesting that Jos Verstappen was in the paddock wearing a team jacket and seemed indifferent to the chaos going on around him.
Horner says he will return to the paddock today (FRI) and focus on his role in leading the team. But right now it’s incredibly hard to see that happening
Horner, who married the pop star in 2015, has always vehemently denied the claims and vowed to fight to clear his name.
The F1 boss flew to Bahrain ahead of the season curtain-raiser where Verstappen will lead the team’s latest push for glory this weekend.
Red Bull bosses have decided not to officially release any evidence against F1’s longest-serving team boss, who was awarded a CBE for services to motorsport.
Company bosses seem to have concluded that the sleazy and vile nature of the messages does not constitute misconduct,
The anonymous text bomb sender appears to have responded to threats from Horner’s aides to reveal who is behind the scandal.
A source told The Sun on Wednesday: “Christian’s career, his marriage and his reputation have all been attacked but now there are no more questions about his character. There is no shadow.
“But there are questions about how it happened, why it happened and who is responsible.”
Red Bull Racing and the team’s Austrian parent company have been contacted for comment.
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Geri, 51, was due to fly to Bahrain to join her husband
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Horner was pictured hugging Verstappen in Bahrain todayCredit: Getty
A look at the life and career of Christian Horner
CHRISTIAN Horner is one of the most famous names in Formula 1 because he helped build Red Bull into one of the biggest teams in the sport.
1973 – Born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
1991 – wins a Formula Renault scholarship after impressing in karting races
1993-1997 – Competed in a range of competitions including British Formula Three, British Formula Two and Formula 3000
1997 – Founded and developed F3000 team Arden
1999 – Retired from driving and continued to develop the Arden team
2005 – Appointed Red Bull team boss, becoming the youngest team manager at the time
2009 – Wins his first races as team principal with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber
2010 – wins Constructors’ Championship and Drivers’ Championship with Vettel – the first of four consecutive two-seaters
2013 – Has a daughter with ex-wife Beverly Allen shortly before the couple split
2014 – Gets engaged to Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell
2015 – Marries Halliwell in Woburn, Bedfordshire
2017 – Horner and Halliwell welcome their son
2021 – Wins another Drivers’ Championship with Max Verstappen, beating Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the season
2022-23 – Red Bull wins the Drivers’ Championship and the Constructors’ Championship two years in a row
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: HIS Education