Christian Horner pressed on Red Bull allegations after Toto Wolff ramped up the heat | F1 | Sport

Christian Horner has insisted that he ‘cannot comment’ on the ongoing investigation into misconduct allegations from a Red Bull employee. The team principal did, however, explain his desire for a quick resolution to the saga.

The 50-year-old is subject to an internal investigation following misconduct allegations from an unnamed Red Bull employee, but the decision was made not to suspend Horner from his duties.

The Red Bull boss was therefore present at the RB20 launch event at Milton Keynes last Thursday and has been active in the garage throughout pre-season testing at the Sakhir International Circuit. 

Asked about the investigations during Thursday’s press conference, Horner replied: « There is a process underway and since I am part of it, I cannot comment on it. We hope there is a resolution as soon as possible. »

While Horner was unwilling to offer any further comment on the matter, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff went into depth regarding his thoughts about the situation during Wednesday’s press conference.

“Formula One and what the teams do… we stand for inclusion, equality, fairness, diversity and that’s not only about talking about it but living it day in, day out and I think this is the standards that we are setting ourselves, » he explained.

« We are a global sport – one of the most important sports platforms in the world – and we are role models. But having said that, there is a lot of speculation that’s been happening over the last weeks. Speculation that we have heard of, and lots of things that are going on, and what I think is important at that stage for a process with rigour. 

« I think what Red Bull has started as an independent investigation if this is done in the right way with transparency and with rigour, I think that’s something that we need to look at – what the outcomes are and what it means for Formula One and how we can learn from that.

“Because we want to talk about racing cars and we want to talk about the sport rather than these kind of very, very critical topics that are more just a teams’ issue. It’s a phenomenon, or it’s an issue for all of Formula One and in general for every individual that works out there.”

Horner’s presence in Bahrain was not a distraction for the Red Bull team, however, with the reigning champions enjoying a stellar first day of testing, during which Max Verstappen punched in a fastest time that was over 1.1 seconds quicker than his nearest rival.