FOLLOWING the announcement that Red Bull Formula 1 principal, Christian Horner, has been cleared in an inappropriate workplace behaviour investigation independently set by Red Bull GmbH, other team leads have weighed in.

Mercedes AMG Petronas CEO and principal, Toto Wolff said the statement released by Red Bull regarding the issue was “basic.”

“We can’t really look behind the curtain,” Wolff said. “At the end of the day, there is a lady in an organisation that has spoken to HR and said there was an issue, and it was investigated.

“Yesterday, the sport has received the message that it’s all fine, we’ve looked at it. I believe with the aspiration as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency, and I wonder what the sport’s position is.

“We’re competitors, we’re a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not. But it’s more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to assess, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.”

McLaren CEO, Zak Brown said “rumours and speculation” continue.

“I think the sanctioning body has a responsibility and authority to our sport, to our fans,” he said.

“I think all of us in Formula 1 are ambassadors for the sport on and off the track, like you see in other sports. I think they need to make sure that things have been fully transparent with them.

“I don’t know what those conversations are. It needs to be thorough, fully transparent, and that they come to the same conclusion that has ben given by Red Bull, and that they agree with the outcome.

“Until then, there’ll continue to be speculation, because there are a lot of unanswered questions about the whole process… I don’t think that’s healthy for the sport.”

Red Bull Racing team principal, Christian Horner during the pre-season test at Bahrain International Circuit last month. Photo: SAM BLOXHAM / MOTORSPORT IMAGES

Wolff said motorsport as a community “cannot afford” to address important social problems like this vaguely.

“This is going to catch us out,” he said. “Eventually, we’re in a super transparent world, eventually things are going to happen, and I think we have the duty, the organisation has the duty, to say, ‘well, we’ve looked at it, and it’s OK,’ and then we can move on.

“It’s sometimes very short-sighted to try to suppress it. Not saying this has happened. We’re standing from the outside and looking at it… Maybe in Formula 1, we’re just our little bubble and we think that’s OK.”

Brown added that Formula 1’s organisers have a responsibility to ensure its personnel are conducting themselves professionally, and that everyone is safe.

“I don’t think it’s the teams’ roles and responsibilities, those questions you mentioned, I think that’s up to FIA and Formula 1 to ultimately decide and ask what they feel gives them the level of transparency they need to ultimately come to their conclusion, and we just have to count on them that they fulfil that obligation to all of us,” Brown said.

He’s “confident” that in a similar event, McLaren’s leadership would act appropriately.

“We’ve had issues that we’ve had to deal with and we’ve dealt with them in a very transparent and swift manner,” Brown said. “That’s all I can say on behalf of McLaren; yes we are well equipped.

“I actually have my head of HR people here this weekend. He and his team are an important part of our racing team, not just for these kinds of reasons, that’s not why he’s here, but for the mental health and the wellbeing.

“Our HR department is very much a part of our racing team because having a race team in a good place, whether it’s here or back in the factory, ultimately the drivers are performing.

“It’s not about working them harder, it’s about the support they need to work at the maximum performance.”

Wolff, representing Mercedes, said he’s leading a branch of a huge global brand with a focus on “compliance, good governance, transparency.”

“It is all part of what we do every day,” he said. “Then sometimes for us it is difficult to understand another world.

“In our organisation, it is just to keep the finger on the pulse the whole time, because it is not only the right thing to do but also where you need to stand in terms of your values as a company today.

“That’s where the Mercedes Formula 1 team stands.”

 

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