Red Bull revealed their 2024 F1 car on February 15th, amid the midst of the ongoing inquiry into team boss Christian Horner. This was Horner’s first public appearance since the opening of an investigation by Red Bull for his alleged inappropriate behavior towards a female employee. Even though the event was the unveiling of RB20, the media couldn’t resist highlighting the investigation as the ‘elephant in the room’. The hype was such that it would have little impact, even if ‘Taylor Swift were to perch’ on the rear wing of the RB20.
Christian Horner joined both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez as soon as the event got underway to discuss the team’s advancement of the RB20. Even though the conversation was all about the 2024 car, the different energy in the room caught the attention of the journalists there.
The Guardian.com cited the observation of the media as “It was simply impossible to ignore the elephant in the room. Indeed, at this stage, Red Bull might have wheeled out the new car with Taylor Swift perched on the rear wing and every eye in the room would still have remained on Horner.”
Apart from this, another unexpected development was Red Bull’s direct announcement that no inquiries regarding the probe would be accepted. However, the media didn’t sit idle on the fiasco. They did make some inadvertent generic inquiries regarding Horner’s and Red Bull’s circumstances. Although Horner replied, it was still very clear that the always upbeat Horner had grown “dimmer” and ” mute.”
However, when the press posed a different question to Verstappen and Horner on Briton’s allegedly seriously broken relationship with Jos, none of them had any insightful comments to share.
What did Christian Horner say regarding his future as Red Bull team boss?
Red Bull dominated the track last year winning 21 out of 22 races. However heading into the 2024 season, Horner’s situation has cast a shadow over the team’s performance. It is because there have been rumors that the Red Bull’s parent company wishes to remove Horner from his position of authority.
Nevertheless denying any such allegations, the Briton said, “We’re very united. We’ve always had tremendous support from the shareholders since Dietrich’s passing.” Horner also mentioned the amount of money invested in the power trains on campus, citing it as the extraordinary backing of the shareholders.
Subsequently, the 50-year-old, acknowledged that although there was inevitably a distraction, his team is still intact. Even with Horner’s assurance, one thing is certain that is the team that ruled the track the previous year will continue to be in shadow.
Despite everything, Horner is unwavering in his determination to keep his focus on the next season. The British boss says that he is excited to see the recently released RB20 run in Bahrain the following week.
