Red Bull’s statement announcing its decision said: “The independent investigation into the allegations made against Mr Horner is complete, and Red Bull can confirm that the grievance has been dismissed.”
But what it did not say was why. And for many outside Red Bull, there are still a lot of unanswered questions, which they are refusing to answer.
Who was the KC employed to compile the report? Who paid them? What did the report say? What was its scope? Did it make recommendations? How much attention did the board pay to it when they made the decision to dismiss the complaint?
Post hoc ergo propter hoc, external is an informal fallacy that states that because an event followed another, it was caused by it. Correlation appears to suggest causality, but sometimes it’s not the case.
In the Horner situation, the complaint was dismissed after the board received the KC’s report. But that is not necessarily the same as the report being crucial in that decision.
These questions only intensified when a cache of messages purporting to involve Horner were leaked to the media and senior F1 personnel the day after Red Bull dismissed the complaint.
A week on from that, in the wake of the news about Marko, Verstappen’s father Jos has made another intervention.
In Bahrain, he had said he believed the Horner controversy was “driving people apart” and that the team would “explode” if their principal stayed in situ.
Questioned by the Daily Mail at a rally in which he was competing in Belgium on Friday, Jos Verstappen said: “I sympathise with the woman, with all that she went through, but we will see what happens.”
As for drawing a line under the controversy, he said: “If that’s what (Horner) wants, fine, but I don’t think it will be possible. It’s too late for Christian to say: ‘Leave me alone’. But he has the support of the Thai owner, so I think he will stay for the rest of the season.
“I said it would bad if he stayed. It really isn’t good for the team, this whole situation.
“But the most important thing for me is that Max is happy. That’s what counts for me. I just want him to be happy.”
Yoovidhya, BBC Sport has learned, met with Verstappen’s manager Raymond Vermeulen in Dubai between the Bahrain and Saudi races, and made it clear that Horner was staying, whether the Verstappen camp liked it or not.
Meanwhile, the word in Austrian circles is that this is much bigger than an internal power play at Red Bull Racing between Horner and Marko.
There, it is believed that this is about a struggle between Thailand and Austria for control of Red Bull, with Horner and Marko merely pieces in the chess game. If so, Yoovidhya appears to be winning.
Amid all this, there is an obvious elephant in the room. The woman who made the allegations against Horner has remained silent so far. How long will that continue? If she speaks out, or takes legal action following her suspension, or both, what effect will that have on Red Bull, and on F1 as a sport?
Governing body the FIA and commercial rights holder F1 have said little publicly about the Horner saga – to the exasperation of many senior figures within the sport. That stance is unlikely to be sustainable in the event the woman speaks out.
Given the superiority of Red Bull’s car with Verstappen behind the wheel, all this is unlikely to derail a championship campaign.
But, in time, it is the sort of thing that can destroy an F1 team.
