Horner Scandal: UK Media Banned From Reporting About it?
Mar.5 - The British media has been barred from reporting the latest developments in the Christian Horner scandal.
The saga, which marred much of the Red Bull team boss' 2024 season, had gone quiet after an internal investigation cleared him of wrongdoing in a 'sexting' controversy involving a female employee.
But according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, the unnamed employee has now taken her complaint to the UK Employment Tribunal, which has accepted the claim and set an initial hearing date for January of 2026.
"Various sources in the paddock confirmed to De Telegraaf that the employee's case against Horner and Red Bull will come before the employment court in January 2026, in England," journalist Erik van Haren explained.
The move follows the employee's reported rejection of Horner and Red Bull's attempts to settle the matter privately.
Fascinatingly, the Dutch report claims that Horner has successfully obtained a so-called Reporting Restriction Order from the court, barring the British media from reporting about the latest developments.
"This will remain the case until the restrictions are lifted," van Haren claims. "Various media outlets are opposing the ban."
Despite the reporting ban, the Horner affair is covered in detail in the latest edition of F1's Netflix series Drive To Survive, in which the 51-year-old team principal pointed the finger at his enemies.
"It was obvious that the end goal was for me to leave Red Bull," he said.
Horner slammed McLaren CEO Zak Brown specifically, calling him a "pr*ck".
"The higher you rise, the sharper the knives," he continued.
"I've reached the top of my game and I never thought in a million years I'd have a challenge like this in my career."
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Come on, when will this allegation saga end for good? It started a little over twelve months ago, which feels like forever ago in motorsport terms, not to mention the absolute final outcome will have to wait until at least next January when the first test for the 2026 season is fast approaching.
As for the reporting ban, how is such a ban even realistically enforceable anyway & I wonder what would happen if any site featured an article about the matter or anything was mentioned about it on a news broadcast.
Well today is March 5th and i dont think ive read or seen anything about the employment tribunal, but you wouldn't anyway, because they are held behind closed doors, so the press wouldn't know any of the details, so no details= nothing for the press to print
Although they could still print & report what they know from before or based on guesswork, etc., but yes, without anything new to report, reporting or printing for the sake of doing so would be pointless.
Do you think they did it?
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