The moments Red Bull team principal Christian Horner learned of an email containing a number of alleged messages between himself and a female colleague were captured as part of the latest series of Formula 1: Drive to Survive.
Horner tells the seventh series of the fly-on-the-wall documentary: “The higher you rise, the sharper the knives. I’d reached the top of my game and I never thought in a million years I’d have a challenge like this in my career.”
It was just 10 days before Red Bull were due to launch their car for the 2024 F1 season when the news broke that Horner was being investigated over an allegation of inappropriate and controlling behaviour. The story dominated headlines and threatened to derail the team, who were aiming to win their fourth drivers’ championship in a row.
The opening scenes of the new instalment of the Netflix series foreshadow the storm to come. While discussing Red Bull’s victorious 2023 season, in which Dutch driver Max Verstappen won a record 19 out of 22 races, Horner’s wife Geri Halliwell-Horner tells him: “The truth is, you never know what life’s going to bring.”
In later scenes, the documentary team capture the couple looking tense, with cameras trained upon their faces as they walk hand in hand together before the season-opening Grand Prix in Bahrain, with speculation swirling about whether Horner should step aside from his role during the investigation into his conduct.
“It’s a crucial time of the year and the job that I do, you’re the front face of the organisation,” Horner said. “You can either hide away or you can get out there and face it.”
Elsewhere, after McLaren CEO Zak Brown calls for transparency in Red Bull’s internal investigation at a news conference, Horner is captured referring to the American businessman using an expletive, adding: “Well, you find out who your friends are don’t you?”
Horner was cleared following Red Bull’s investigation, but the following day, during first practice at the Bahrain Grand Prix, an anonymous email with a link to messages purporting to involve the team principal was sent to Formula 1 personnel and media.
Drive to Survive, which launches on Friday, captures the moments after he learns of the email. Sitting in the paddock, Horner checks his phone, looking stressed.
“At the end of the second practice, suddenly my phone starts getting messages and this, that and the other,” Horner says. “There’s a bombshell that’s dropped with a bunch of alleged messages.
“It was obviously premeditated to cause me the maximum amount of distraction, the maximum amount of aggravation.”
He later adds: “It was obvious that the end goal was for me to leave Red Bull.”
Verstappen’s father, Jos, was one of the voices who called for the 51-year-old to step aside. During the Bahrain Grand Prix, he said he believed the team would be torn apart if Horner stayed in charge.
In one scene, amid stories about internal strife, Halliwell-Horner is shown hugging Verstappen’s father.
An appeal against the investigation by the same colleague who made allegations against Horner was subsequently dismissed in August 2024.
Horner, who has always denied the allegations against him, has been Red Bull team principal since they first started on the F1 grid in 2005. Including last season’s fourth successive win for Verstappen, he has overseen eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ championships.
