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The allegations overshadowed the launch of Red Bull’s new Formula 1 car, the RB20, the follow-up to last year’s RB19, which together with driver Max Verstappen produced the most dominant season in F1 history.<\/p>\n
The launch was planned many weeks ago to celebrate the 20th F1 car produced by Red Bull, and was held inside an industrial unit at the team’s Milton Keynes campus.<\/p>\n
When the allegations against Horner emerged a couple of weeks ago, many expected the event to be called off, or at least for Horner not to be there. But it was decided to go ahead as planned.<\/p>\n
A glitzy presentation featured highlights of the team’s two decades in F1, and interviews with Horner, chief technical officer Adrian Newey, technical director Pierre Wache and David Coulthard, who joined as a driver for Red Bull’s first season in 2005 and is now an ambassador for the company.<\/p>\n
There was a sound-and-light show before the car was unveiled, and the new model did not disappoint in including a couple of obvious innovations that will set tongues wagging up and down the pit lane.<\/p>\n
During the presentation, only one moment jarred, when Coulthard made a joke about Horner “getting his kit off”. <\/p>\n
It was a reference to celebrations after the team’s first podium finish in Monaco in 2006, when Horner jumped into the swimming pool on the Red Bull barge in the harbour with only a Superman cape protecting his modesty.<\/p>\n
But in the light of the allegations swirling around him – details of which have not been made public – it caused eyebrows to raise in the auditorium.<\/p>\n
In his interview with BBC television, and later ones with the written media, Horner was consistent in his denials of the allegations and said: “I’m confident. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be here.”<\/p>\n
But there was at least one misstep. Having told BBC Sport on camera that the allegations were a distraction, he played the idea down when speaking to a wider group of journalists.<\/p>\n
“Look,” he said, when asked the same question. “I think at moments of uncertainty, it brings the team together and I have never seen the team more together or more supportive than it is. <\/p>\n
“Everybody’s focused on one thing, which is the performance of that car – to go out and defend both the titles we have worked hard to achieve over the last couple of years. The car is what everybody is invested in.”<\/p>\n
It was suggested to him that in such scenarios elsewhere a chief executive officer might be expected to step aside until any investigation had been completed. Why had that not been the case at Red Bull?<\/p>\n
“It’s very, very clear,” Horner said. “The position of Red Bull is that it’s business as normal. Of course the allegations; there’s a process Red Bull are running through and have confirmed that process externally. But obviously there is a job to do and I deny fully the accusations that have been made and my role continues.”<\/p>\n
Horner’s PR minder let the inquisition continue by and large. But one question did prompt an intervention.<\/p>\n
Had any deal been offered to the complainant to shut the complaint down, Horner was asked?<\/p>\n
“Let’s not go on with that,” the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n