Little more than a year on from Christian Horner leaving his £12million-a-season job as team principal of Red Bull, his accuser of coercive behaviour has been mysteriously released from her latest role in motor racing.
Daily Mail Sport can reveal that the woman executive involved, whose identity cannot be disclosed for legal reasons, parted company from her employers ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix last month.
A source has told Daily Mail Sport that she was informed her services were no longer required moments before her scheduled flight to Budapest, a race won by McLaren’s British world champion Lando Norris.
Her then employers, who can also not be named, said: ‘We do not comment on personnel matters.’
It is understood that her latest position was terminated after her new boss, with whom she worked closely, lost confidence in her ‘for a lack of discretion’.
Daily Mail Sport has tried to contact the woman in question for a response to the suggested reasons for the parting, which followed a period during which she did not attend races.
Christian Horner with wife Geri Halliwell last year shortly before his departure from Red Bull
Horner oversaw eight drivers’ titles at Red Bull, including four in a row with Max Verstappen
In one of Formula One’s most high-profile controversies, Horner – the husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell – was accused of controlling behaviour over the employee.
He has always denied the claims and was twice cleared of any impropriety in internal investigations at Red Bull, despite a tranche of supposedly intimate text exchanges between the pair being made public in an explosive email sent to F1 figures ahead of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Halliwell has resolutely and publicly stood by Horner throughout the turmoil, and they continue to split their time between their north London and Oxfordshire homes, along with their children Bluebell, Olivia and Montague.
Horner lost his job following last year’s British Grand Prix in a power struggle within the Austrian-based team he led to eight drivers’ and six constructors’ titles in two phases over 20 years through Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
Horner received an £80m package on leaving. The woman who made her accusations remained at Red Bull for several months as the saga unfolded before receiving a payout of some £3m.
She returned to motor racing in July last year in her then new position.
Horner, who has been courted by Ferrari and Aston Martin, and linked to Alpine, is considering how he might get back on the grid wall in a position that best suits him, ideally, as a team owner rather than as an employee.
FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, speaking on the day of the British Grand Prix in July, vouched that Horner would ‘definitely’ return to F1.
