Red Bull scandal revs up

But its business as usual for Max Verstappen and a resurgent Sergio Perez at the Bahrain Grand Prix writes Peter Coster.

The Bahrain Grand Prix delivered no surprises whereas the investigation into Red Bull principal Christian Horner brought new shocks.

While Horner, the long-time chief of Red Bull Racing walked down pit lane with former wife Gerri Halliwell, a deluge of What’s App messages from an anonymous source arrived to spice up the  scandal.

One of scores of recipients chose to reveal an alleged attempt to keep meetings with a woman secret from former Spice girl wife Halliwell while others were supposedly of a “sexually suggestive” nature, including a picture of an “unidentified naked man.”

Horner had been cleared of allegedly “inappropriate behaviour” with a woman employee of Red Bull after an eight-hour interrogation by a specialised independent barrister.

In spite of this, other F1 bosses, such as Mercedes chief Toto Wolff and McLaren’s Zac Brown called for greater transparency following the brief nothing-to-see here statement by Red Bull and Horner.

If anything has been proved against the 50-year-old, who has overseen six world constructors’ championships and seven world drivers’ championships at Red Bull, it seems the most generous view of what has happened is that he has made a fool of himself.

Travelling around the world on private jets between the adrenaline rush of  the world’s most expensive sport has its idle hours and whether Horner will survive remains to be seen as will the career prospects of the complainant. 

If it were not for his overwhelming success at Red Bull, Horner would be a laughing stock in the F1 paddock.

That success continued on Saturday at the Bahrain Grand Prix where he congratulated three-time world champion Max Verstappen on his pole-to-flag master class.

The Dutch wunderkind drove a faultless race, winning over teammate Sergio Perez by 22 seconds with Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren left to wonder whether this season will be another Red Bull victory fest.

The only challenge was from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the first corner where Verstappen squeezed him out before cruising into the distance.

The Monegasque driver finished fourth behind teammate Carlos Sainz who gave him no favours during the race following his place being taken at Ferrari next year by Lewis Hamilton.

Apart from the Horner scandal, the F1 paddock has been rife with silly-season driver speculation.

Would Carlos Sainz take Lewis Hamilton’s seat at Mercedes, would Lando Norris leave McLaren to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull next year when the Mexican driver’s contract expires, or would Daniel Ricciardo return to Red Bull if he out performs teammate Yuki Tsunoda at Visa Cash RB, formerly AlphaTauri, formerly Toro Rosso.

Yes, team names can change as frequently as their drivers.

The reason for Lewis Hamilton’s jump from Mercedes to Ferrari after his string of world championships with the German manufacturer  is primarily because he thinks he has a better chance of winning a record-breaking eighth world championship with the Scuderia.

But it also has elements of driving for the Prancing Horse of Maranello as so many of the world’s best drivers have done.

It is a decision driven by romanticism as well as pragmatism. In years gone by, champions such as Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, Mike Hawthorn, John Surtees, Peter Collins and Phil Hill drove for Ferrari and its fabled owner for sometimes little more than a cut of the prize money.

Enzo Ferrari was 90 when he died in 1988 and indisputably loved his cars more than he did his drivers.

He was not a designer, nor an engineer, although he liked to be dressed as ingegnere and said he regarded himself as “an agitator of men.”

The tifosi, the emotional followers who still celebrate his victories, have the same attachment to his cars rather than their drivers.

This correspondent suffered from the same mystique having once driven a Ferrari Daytona, the last of the great front-engined road cars favoured by the Old Man, who believed in the philosophy that the horse should pull the car, not push it.

Australian triple world champion Jack Brabham and the rear-engined garagistas he despised proved him wrong, but to once drive this car behind its endless bonnet at 125mph when in only the third of its five gears was to believe in the legend.

This season, the Ferraris driven by Leclerc and Sainz were expected to be more than competitive against the Red Bulls. They might actually win races.

While that is still likely, even the luckless Perez of last year has regained form and Verstappen may have taken the first step towards a fourth world title.

Australians Oscar Piastri in the McLaren and Daniel Ricciardo finished eighth and 13th respectively.

The Bahrain race came a day early on Saturday because of the religious month of Ramadan in the Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The third Grand Prix is in Melbourne at the Albert Park circuit on Sunday, March 24.