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Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says Red Bull’s statement clearing Christian Horner of any ‘inappropriate behaviour’ is “basic”, “vague” and “opaque”.
Yesterday Red Bull Racing’s parent company Red Bull GmbH published a statement in which they said their investigation has cleared team boss Christian Horner of any ‘inappropriate behaviour’.
The statement itself did not disclose any details about the original complaint filed by a female employee of the team, or the subsequent investigation.
When asked about this, Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said more transparency is needed.
“I just read the statement which was pretty basic, and my personal opinion is that we can’t look behind the curtain,” the Austrian said.
“At the end of the day, there is a lady in an organisation that has spoken to HR and said there was an issue, and it was investigated.
“Yesterday, the sport received the message that it was ‘all fine, we have looked at it’, and I believe that as a global sport on such critical topics, it needs more transparency.
“I wonder what the sport’s position is? We are competitors, we are a team and can have our own opinions, but it is more like a general reaction that we as a sport need to address what is right in that situation.
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“Again, as I said, we are being asked questions here as competitors. Are we talking as competitors and with the right values, morals, based on the speculation?
“As a sport, we cannot afford to leave things in the vague, the opaque on critical topics like this, because it is going to catch us out.
“Because we are in a super transparent world eventually, things are going to happen and I think we have to, the organisation has the duty to say: ‘Well, we’ve looked at it and it’s okay and then we can move on.’
“And I think it’s sometimes very short sighted to try to suppress it, but [I am] not saying this has happened.
“We’re standing from the outside and just looking at statements or press releases or timelines. It just seems that it’s a bit not as modern as things go in this world, in the real world out there.
“But maybe in Formula 1, we just have a little problem and we think that’s okay,” the Austrian concluded.
