(Paris) The employee of the Red Bull F1 team behind accusations of “inappropriate behavior” targeting team principal Christian Horner has filed a complaint with the ethics committee of the Fédération Internationale Automobile. (FIA), the BBC said on Saturday.
According to the British media, this complaint to the motorsport governing body follows two previous reports.
The first took place on February 2, via the FIA’s F1 ethics hotline, a few days before the affair was made public.
This call made direct reference to the behavior of Christian Horner towards an employee of the Austrian team and asked the FIA to look into the matter while expressing fear that Red Bull was trying to stifle the affair.
The second report, made on March 6, recalled the accusations made in the first and warned that in the event of inaction on the part of the body, the denouncer – whose identity is not specified by the BBC – would inform the media.
Asked by AFP, the FIA responded “that it could not confirm the filing of the complaint” due to the procedures it applies internally in the management of this type of matter and “the strict confidentiality that it imposes itself and will continue to impose itself.”
Horner, 50, married to ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell who appeared alongside him during the Bahrain Grand Prix, has always denied the accusations against him.
He was cleared last week by Red Bull after a 10-week internal investigation led by an external lawyer appointed by the Austrian team.
The employee, suspended from her duties within the team after the rejection of her complaint, decided to appeal this decision internally, and asked Red Bull to reconsider its position, according to several media.
The affair continues to shake the championship leader team despite its excellent results at the start of the season.
Last weekend, its star driver Max Verstappen, three-time reigning world champion, gave his support to the team’s influential advisor, the Austrian Helmut Marko. According to media reports, his position was also threatened because of this affair, without the role he may have played in it being detailed.