The Red Bull situation
and what isn't being said loud enough
After a long hiatus, I have perhaps unwisely chosen to delve into the heaviest of the off/on season drama: the Investigation into Christian Horner. I initially wrote this about a month ago, then I put it on the Too Scary pile and left it. But this shit is still going on, so here we are…
I have struggled to keep up with all the ins and outs of the drama, but that isn’t what I’m writing about. This whole saga has been going on for what feels like forever. Remember when this story first broke? All the way back in… last month? It looked scarily serious, but it was a good look for Red Bull GmbH to launch a proper investigation into the grievance. In stark contrast to the blatant racism from Helmut Marko last year that only yielded mealy mouthed non-comments, inappropriate conduct was into needs-a-lawyer-to-investigate territory.
[polite request for more eyeballs on my future writings]
And then I noticed the language being used. Most (if not all) of the news around this was coming from Craig Slater from Sky F1, who I should make clear has been very good with his wording of the situation and the investigation. He was making clear how little we actually knew of anything, but also how important it was.
And then Christian Horner himself tells the world the investigation is “a distraction.” Horner is very particular with the words he uses, whether he be downplaying the gravity of the Race Director failing to follow rules, or trying to get us excited about Max in the year of Maximum Verstappen. Horner is very good at media spin. He always manages to sound so natural, and hey, maybe he doesn’t even script his soundbites. But he is never one to miss an opportunity to spin the narrative to his liking.
So, as the person of power being investigated, I think it was an extremely unfortunate choice of words from Horner. The word choice and the tone very much created the impression that the investigation didn’t matter. That he would emerge unscathed from it. There’s playing it down, and there’s completely dismissing the process he was in the centre of. Unsurprisingly, I don’t think he should have even been present at the car launch, where the comments were given, out of respect for the investigation. If there’s anyone who could spin a believable line as to why his absence is for the best while maintaining his innocence, it’s Christian Horner.
All of which creates the sad reminder that a complaint from a woman, or any person not white or male for that matter, is perceived as actually being about someone else who is white and male. The complaint was being talked about as someone essentially whinging about a ‘strict’ working environment. As though someone complained about having to show up to work at 8am and only take 30 min for lunch. As though women go and complain about inappropriate conduct purely for the lols. In other words, dismissive.
It’s been framed as a baseless dig at Horner for merely existing and being successful. Then there are the fanboi types who will never care about any potential or alleged harm their hero has done, just get out of the way and let them keep winning. (An accurate response to which is covered in this glorious video.) Some bits of the story were leaked from a Dutch news source so clearly it must be from the Verstappens. Or maybe just Jos against Horner. Or Red Bull are trying to get rid of Horner for “reasons.” Something with Helmut Marko..? There’s a lot. It’s still going. I can’t follow them all.
And they anger me.
Despite us sitting here in the 21st century, there’s still huge amounts of inequality generally, let alone in workplaces. There are still people who create trouble with others because of (perceived) gender or race or sexual orientation, or any other real or perceived attribute in an unfortunately long list. While we want to think the F1 team environments are 100% about folks coming together to produce a world beating car and working together perfectly, that isn’t the case. I read the report from the Hamilton Commission in the winter, and there’s a whole lot of shit that still goes on. Slurs are bandied about for “banter” that management don’t seem concerned by.
Interlude
It’s not “just banter.” It’s only a joke if everyone is laughing. And yes, everyone has a different sense of humour and tolerance for bullshit; it’s part of the fun that makes us individuals. Sexism and racism aren’t jokes —> get better material.
No one wants to go through a grievance process, but sometimes shit happens and the only way is through. And if we think about it for a second, why would the top players/powers of Red Bull need to get someone to go through a grievance process to get rid of Horner? Are they that powerless? If they think he’s being too seedy, or too anything, they don’t need to throw someone else to the (gossip column) wolves in order to remove him. But seriously, if that’s the level Red Bull is operating at, then fuck them.
As a female race fan watching this play out I’m left with a feeling of being ignored. I don’t mean me personally, but as though us womenfolk are supposed to just stand over there and watch while the men do the Important Work. That our presence is tolerated only if we stay out of the way.
We see so few women in the pitlane doing the race team stuff. Do they have to run a gauntlet of banter and dick pics to stand a chance there? A lot of people in the Paddock seem to know who is involved in this, so it is plausible that people also knew what was being investigated even before the “leak” of (alleged) messages. Is this kind of thing an open secret in the paddock? Again, to be clear, I don’t know anything specific about the complaint, and I’m ok with not knowing anything. That’s not my business.
The initial investigation’s conclusion is being appealed, and even without that this is a sensitive area. While I understand why Red Bull GmbH aren’t forthcoming with details, I don’t understand why neither the main company nor the F1 team have been more forthcoming in telling people to stop gossiping. The most we got was Christian Horner telling the media to leave his family alone, after he brought his family into the discussion himself.
But this whole shitshow isn’t just down to the race team handling things badly. As I mentioned previously the F1 fandom/internet at large is still showing itself incapable of showing respect to a complaint of this nature. Over in the realm of football/soccer teams might be fined or otherwise penalised for the bad behaviour of their fans. This could be a mechanism of holding the sport to its own values. I don’t even know if this kind of penalty leads to an improvement in fan behaviour. And it would be of limited value if the team involved still decides to suspend the person who made the complaint in the first place. I’m also not sure if the FIA has the authority (yet?) to impose such penalties. Or is comparing football fans and motorsport fans some kind of heresy?
This whole thing has made a can of worms look well organised, but it doesn’t need to be another shameful scandal on Formula 1.
I don’t have a Will Buxton Poetry Corner for you to lighten the mood. Apologies. Hopefully I’ll have more dramatic pause derived art next time.
Yes, I have gone through and liked my own articles, because goddamit I worked hard on them and this is me giving myself a high five.