Christian Horner’s Formula One career was dealt a new blow on Thursday night when a series of purportedly intimate WhatsApp conversations between him and a female staffer were made public.
The leak of 79 screenshots of messages and pictures were emailed to key figures in the sport ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. The sender was anonymous. The bombshell leak comes a day after the 50-year-old husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell was cleared of ‘coercive behaviour’ in an internal inquiry conducted by Red Bull’s parent company in Salzburg. The Englishman was free to stay on as team principal of the world-championship winning team on a salary of £8million a year.
The leak, containing hundreds of WhatsApp messages, was sent to leading F1 figures, including FIA president Mohammad Ben Sulayem and F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali. All the team principals were also copied in, along with star driver Max Verstappen’s father Jos
Horner issued a statement saying, “I will not comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate I have always denied the allegations,” shortly after communications and photos were published.