The woman who accused Christian Horner of inappropriate behaviour has reportedly made an official complaint to Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA.
Red Bull team principal Horner was cleared of the allegations after an internal investigation by his employer, who then suspended the unnamed employee on full pay. The investigation was carried out by an external KC, but the employee has now escalated things by going to the FIA.
BBC Sport reports that an official complaint has now been lodged with the organisation’s ethics committee. Horner has always denied the accusations made against him and has spent the start of the 2024 F1 season encouraging people to move on.
The FIA said in a statement: “At the FIA, enquiries and complaints are received and managed by the Compliance Officer, and the Ethics Committee where appropriate. Both bodies operate autonomously, guaranteeing strict confidentiality throughout the process.
“As a consequence, and in general, we are unable to confirm the receipt of any specific complaint and it is unlikely that we will be able to provide further comment on the complaints that we may receive from any parties.”
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The complaint is reportedly the third to be made to the FIA’s ethics committee following two by whistleblowers. A spokesperson for Red Bull told BBC Sport they were not aware of the new complaint and did not want to comment.
Mirror Sport understands that Horner has received further backing from Red Bull following the scandal. The Austrian company are behind the 50-year-old and would be ready to let Max Verstappen go if they were forced to choose between the two.
Christian Horner has the backing of the Red Bull hierarchy (Clive Mason/Getty Images)Max’s father Jos Verstappen has publicly called for Horner to be replaced, but talks were held this week in an attempt to mend things and move on. Red Bull are keen to present a united front and focus their efforts on beating Mercedes and Ferrari once more.
Speaking earlier this month, Horner said: "Obviously there has been a lot of coverage surrounding this, but one has to go back to the basis of a grievance was raised, it was fully investigated, and it was dismissed. From there we move onwards.
"I think an awful lot has been made out of this. Obviously it has been of great interest in different elements of the media for different reasons. I think the time now is to look forward and draw a line under it.
"We are here to go racing, we are here as a Formula 1 team, and the time now is to focus on what is going on on track and the performance of the cars and the drivers, where the spotlight should be during the course of a Grand Prix weekend."
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