Despite obvious censure from lawyers, Christia Horner RedBull allegation from the 2024 season finds a prominent spot on Drive To Survive season 7. The first episode titled "Business as Usual", a phrase Horner had turned to whenever asked about his role in the team at the beginning of last year, deals with the two most shocking developments in recent Formula One history, Christian Horner's scandal and Lewis Hamilton's move to Ferrari.
DTS had minted a huge amount of footage during the first two races of the 2024 season, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, enough content to have a 10-episode show of its own but the Christian Horner drama is only rehashed as plotpoint one in episode one. The censure is not shied away from. The producers from Box to Box have brought exclusive footage from the exact moment the explosive email with text messages was sent out to the paddock and Horner's reaction to it all.
Even though the sources were not verified for the texts leak, Horner has spoken about how the leak was strategically timed to cause the most distraction during that race weekend in a DTS interview. However, even then, DTS captures Paul Smith, Director of Comms and Social, RedBull, coaching and monitoring Horner for media interations regarding this issue. Jos Vestappen's initiative to push Horner out of the team is also covered on the episode with cautious comments on it from Horner himself.
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| Christian Horner, CEO and Team Principal, RedBull Racing, Formula 1 |
If the powers-that-be thought the limited coverage of the issue on the new season of DTS would serve as a victory lap for the RedBull top boss, that hasn't been the case. In fact, Horner begins the 2025 season with a target on his back as last year's drama is rehashed a week before the racing begins. Despite Horner having been exonerated twice, the case is still active where a female employee has accused him of coersive and inappropriate behaviour. The case is due an early 2026 hearing before a United Kingdom employment tribunal while the employee has been suspended by RedBull for over a year at the time of report.
While Christian Horner being targetted is partly owed to his team's landslide success during the large part of the last four years, whatever merit the allegations have, have also kept the issue front and center as the season begins in Australia. But there's more at stake than Christian Horner's role and reputation for the 2025 RedBull F1 team.
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| Liam Lawson, driving for RedBull Racing, Formula 1, 2025 |
Having failed to defend the Constructor's title in the previous season and barely hanging onto the Driver's title for Max Verstappen, Horner has made an off-season cut to replace Sergio Perez with Liam Lawson as the second driver for the team.
Toto Wolff and Zak Brown playing their roles right in riling up Horner last season has been well-documented on DTS. Considering how bothered Horner actually was in the Netflix series, it is clear the destabilising effects the whole scandal had on the team. Jos Verstappen fuelling the flames further by calling for Horner to step down from his role only adds to the tension on that side of the paddock.
Even though Horner harps on about the support he has received internally, there's no denying that the idea of him stepping down from his role was a rumour that was seriously floated around at the beginning of the year as the team showed diminshing performance.
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| Lando Norris, F1 driver, and Zak Brown, CEO, McLaren Racing |
Zak Brown, his nemesis on the Netflix's Drive to Survive, had kept the pressure on Horner on and off the track with Lando Norris taking the fight to Verstappen most races and him calling for more "transparency" in the investigation process at the press conference in Bahrain.
Be it as a result of the other teams catching up to RedBull or the distractions in the team contributing, RedBull came off of having won 21 races out of 22 in 2023, breaking the record for most race wins in a year, most podiums in a year, most poles to win in a year, most points in a year and the biggest winning margin in a year, to actually having Max fighting it out wih Lando Norris to defend his Driver's Championship title and ending up losing the Constructor's Championship to McLaren.
In the face of the criticism aimed at him, Horner tells DTS, "The higher you rise, the sharper the knives". But the image that rises out of this controversy is his attempt at damage control at Bahrain GP 2024 with wife Geri Halliwell walking the paddock on his arms with a smile on her face.
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| Christian Horner with Geri Halliwell and Paul Smith at Bahrain GP, 2024 |
Even though Horner is seen taunting the DTS crew about if he is done being portrayed as a villain in the show, he is well aware of the turning tide in the DTS audience.
What he says has made him a target in the paddock is also the reason of his popularity among DTS fans, him leading a non-car-manufacturing team to undeniable success. It had made him the underdog, taking the fight to Mercedes and Ferrari and fans had rooted for him and his team. This controversy has seriously dented his image and 2025 begins with a reminder of all the drama that had gone down in the paddock during this time period.
DTS audience has expressed divided opinion on the first episode and the coverage of the whole situation. While one section has bemoaned the omissions in the situation and the lack of proper coverage, the other section has questioned the validity of using Horner as the primary plot and relegating Lewis Hamilton's historic move to Ferrari as the secondary plotline.
For better or for worse, the new season of the sport is back with all the pace, drama and action this weekend with the season openner race in Australia.
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