Season 7 of Drive to Survive dove straight into the Christian Horner saga from the start of the 2024 season, and the way it was portrayed has received some criticism. Horner was facing allegations of “inappropriate behavior” involving a female Red Bull employee, which led to an internal investigation and significant media scrutiny for the Austrian outfit’s CEO and team principal.
While he was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent barrister working on behalf of Red Bull GmbH (Red Bull Racing’s parent company), the leaked chats between Horner and that employee painted the Briton as the guilty party – at least in the public eye.
Netflix covered the saga in the first episode of their blockbuster docuseries. But they only pushed the Red Bull boss’ narrative. British journalist Marina Hyde pointed this out on The Rest is Entertainment podcast, calling Drive to Survive out for being a propaganda machine. “I mean about behind the scenes this is ultimately a propaganda vehicle for the sport of Formula 1”, she said.
Hyde even referenced Leni Riefenstahl, who was a close confidante and documentarian to the infamous dictator Adolf Hitler in the 1930s and 40s.
“If she was still alive, Leni Riefenstahl would probably be doing second unit on it. It has got one point of view that has been pushed all the way,” Hyde added.
Her co-host and TV presenter Richard Osman subtly ignored the Hitler reference — for obvious reasons — but agreed to the fact that Netflix had done Horner a favor by portraying him in a good light.
UPDATE: Christian Horner has denied any wrongdoing after Red Bull opened an investigation into allegations against him.#F1 https://t.co/CzzhpsB6zN pic.twitter.com/AnKdGj943y
— Autosport (@autosport) February 5, 2024
At the same time, Osman acknowledged that appearing in those Netflix interviews couldn’t have been easy for Horner. He would have had to relive the reality of the controversy twice due to the coverage.
Was the Horner saga handled properly?
Hyde’s opinion on Horner remained undeterred. She criticized how Red Bull’s investigation wasn’t transparent. “There was a big sort of blow-up about it, and they had an incredibly opaque internal inquiry into it, which immediately cleared Christian Horner,” she continued.
More importantly, the saga escalated into a major controversy around one of the top team bosses due to the leak of chats and images. Had that been avoided, F1 wouldn’t have had to deal with such a subplot at the start of a new season.
Horner acknowledged this, stating it was a deliberate attempt to cause him maximum distress despite his full compliance with the investigation. “It was obviously premeditated to cause me the maximum amount of distraction, the maximum amount of aggravation,” he said in the first episode of DTS Season 7.
Netflix’s approach was restrained, as they only covered publicly known details and avoided delving into the leaked messages, perhaps to prevent further controversy.
As of now, the case remains ongoing, with the UK Labor Court set to address it as an employer-employee grievance in January 2026.
