Still dominant on track, but disorganised off it, Red Bull will likely place its problems back in the Australian highlight.
After weeks of turmoil at Red Bull Racing, team principal Christian Horner made a call at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, more hopeful than realistic, that it was time to end the controversy that had surrounded him and his team.
However, what followed Formula 1’s first week off since the start of the new season has ended any faint hopes it might have nurtured and scrutiny will be renewed this weekend at the Australian Grand Prix, where the transitory moratorium on infighting at Red Bull will again come under intense pressure.
Horner has endured the most turbulent and difficult two months of his career since he made public in early February that he was being investigated for alleged misplaced behaviour following a complaint filed by a female employee at the team. The complaint was dismissed on February 28, just before the season-opening Bahrain GP.
Horner has denied any wrongdoing, but there was no let-up. A day later, an email was leaked to the FIA, F1, groups and the media, purporting to involve messages between Horner and the whistleblower and since then the typhoon has only intensified. .
During the race weekend in Saudi Arabia, what was perceived as part of a struggle of forces at Red Bull came to a head in full swing. World champion Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, cheekily called for Horner’s decommissioning, the team’s motorsport director Helmut Marko, under risk of suspension, prompting Verstappen to risk leaving. To which Horner responded by calling for a bluff by stating that no one is bigger than the team.
This was an unprecedented point of contortion and infighting for an F1 team, which was falling very publicly, anathema to organisations so committed to exerting iron fist over data and image.
By the time the floodlights went out in Jeddah, Red Bull’s official line one of team unity and feathers had softened and any and all tools capable of leaving a mark were used to insistently draw as many lines as possible.
It was an exercise in futility. A short time later, it became known that the applicant had been suspended from her duties on the basis of doubts about the evidence she had provided to the investigation. The worker then opted to appeal Horner’s decision.
Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, has cleared its president, Mohammed bin Sulayem, of two allegations of interference in the 2023 season’s grands prix after an investigation by the FIA’s chief compliance officer and its six-person ethics body. or evidence of the investigation has been disclosed.
The allegations had reached the FIA through a whistleblower that Ben Sulayem had interfered in two sporting resolutions in 2023. The former interceded in the Saudi Arabian GP stewards’ resolution to impose a penalty on Fernando Alonso and push them back. After which Alonso gained a place on the podium.
The time before the first Las Vegas Grand Prix last year, he had asked that the new track not be homologated for racing. He alleged that the government ignored the request and approved the registration.
These claims were made public in leaked documents, but the FIA said it found no evidence of interference through the president.
“After reviewing the effects of the investigations, the Ethics Committee was unanimous in determining that there was no evidence of the allegations of interference of any kind involving FIA President Mohammed bin Sulayem. “
The findings imply that the investigation was conducted through the FIA’s Chief Compliance Officer and reviewed through the Ethics Committee, over a 30-day period and included 11 witness interviews that resulted in a conclusive decision. “The allegations against the FIA President were unfounded and solid evidence beyond a moderate doubt was presented to assist the determination of the FIA Ethics Committee,” he said.
However, no main points were revealed about the allegations, nor about the evidence presented to refute those claims. With the game under great pressure to be transparent given the cases surrounding the recent allegations against Red Bull team principal Christian Horner, there may be some fear within F1, as the FIA itself conducted an internal investigation but provided details on how and why it came to its conclusions. Gilles Richards
Then last week it was reported that he had lodged a complaint about Horner’s behaviour with the ethics committee of the sport’s governing body, the FIA. The complaint would stick to two previous reports submitted to the FIA in recent weeks through a whistleblower, either about Horner and Red Bull. The FIA will not comment on the court cases won and Red Bull has declined to comment on the reports.
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None of this will have gone unnoticed by the various factions who will actually have spent the weeks leading Melbourne to catch their breath and formulate new tactics. From the struggle for control between Red Bull’s most commonly Thai owners, Horner and the Austrian wing of the parent company, to the infighting between Horner and the Verstappens and Horner and Marko – all of whom seem inextricably connected to the wider war – it makes no sense that simply pointing out that concord has been achieved actually results in a ceasefire in Melbourne.
The wider implications for the game remain highly concerning and will be discussed in Australia. The lack of transparency has only fueled speculation, and those recent events will have fueled additional fear about how the episode was treated and the potential damage it is causing to the gaming industry. reputation. A number of team principals expressed dissatisfaction with the way the factor was dealt with and called on the FIA to intervene.
F1 and the FIA would like to be aware of the main points of the investigation, which they download due to confidentiality agreements with the parties involved, but the FIA, at least, now seems to have had to be actively involved if it wants to. investigate court cases to its own ethics committee. The case is not on the decline, but it is intensifying.
On track this weekend, Red Bull has a chance to cement the evidence that they are back at the end of the season. However, the race, the game itself, remains almost a sample of the turbulent politics that dominate Red Bull and F1 to a greater extent. than the extremely formidable car that the team brings to the grid.