Christian Horner couldn't do what Geri told him to. He struts around like the cock of the walk. Now this grubby text scandal has left a stain on F1, writes IAN HERBERT

It's the audacity of Christian Horner that really takes your breath away. The brass neck and air of absolute invincibility which has allowed him to strut around an F1 paddock in Bahrain, cock of the walk, betraying no sense of personal jeopardy when he would have known about a deluge of WhatsApp messages which surely mean he is finished.

That's what incalculable wealth, power and adulation will do to an individual, though. Horner has lived the high life and basked in the A-lister world, been serenaded by Gary Barlow and Rod Stewart at his own 50th birthday bash in London's Mayfair not so long ago. When you exude that wealth, you feel untouchable. You hire a barrister and fervently believe an independent inquiry will absolve you.

It was telling to learn a few weeks ago that Horner's wife Geri Halliwell had told him to 'make it go away.' That's how these people think. Trusting that a lid will be placed on it all. Expecting a verdict of innocence.

And then, on Wednesday, an anodyne little press statement from the Red Bull parent company, declaring there was nothing to see here and that Horner had, indeed, been cleared of claims of coercive behaviour towards a female employee.

That statement stretched to just 89 words. It was a parody of transparency, laughing in the face of such grave allegations. 'Fair… rigorous… impartial… grievance dismissed... highest workplace standards,' blah, blah, blah.

Red Bull principal Christian Horner faces further scrutiny after alleged WhatsApps are leaked 

Horner issued a statement saying he will not comment on 'anonymous speculation'

No sense that there was anything to learn. No expression of regret that a complainant might feel aggrieved. Not the remotest sense of remorse that the reputation of F1 had been dragged through the mud. That press release was a disgrace. A weaselly, deeply inadequate response to a complaint from a woman viewed with respect within Red Bull and the sport. It was nothing less than an insult to her.

But that's the way of the world now, throughout the ranks of our gilded, fabulously wealthy sports. Lawyer it. Press release it. Tick the box. Job done.

There is, of course, no love lost between Horner and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, but the Austrian's call for 'more transparency' in this case, which he issued after Red Bull had declared the matter closed, was wise and entirely correct.

The only kind of transparency through this unsettling past month for the sport has been the sight of Horner himself, larger than life and showing up everywhere imaginable.

Would he, in these most testing circumstances, turn up at the Red Bull car launch in Milton Keynes? Yes. Would he be seen at testing in Bahrain? Yes. And by the time the statement clearing him was released, he had taken a private jet back to Bahrain, where he was at large once more yesterday, breezing around the paddock, a picture of insouciance.

Hugging Max Verstappen. Placing himself front and centre in the outdoor area of Red Bull's hospitality space at the Bahrain International Circuit. Conducting meetings and phone calls in the open space that media and other teams' staff can freely access. Parading a wristwatch the size of a brick.

That air of easy self-confidence turned out to be hubris last night after the data drop which seemed a whole lot like the consequences of these complaints being passed off in a way which implied they were rank rubbish.

A Google Drive file, containing 79 documents, including hundreds of messages, many of a sexual nature, dropped like kryptonite on the sport.

Red Bull launched the probe on Horner, husband of ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, on February 5

Horner embraces three-time champion Verstappen in Bahrain ahead of the 2024 curtain raiser

Only those within F1 who were hiding under a rock had not seen it by early evening. It was emailed to nearly 200 people in the F1 paddock, including the F1 Group, the FIA, the other nine team principals and multiple media outlets. It painted a grubby and deeply humiliating picture of the individual who sent the WhatsApp messages.

It remains unclear whether those messages had formed part of the Red Bull investigation. They probably did. Yet it does not seem to be stretching the bounds of credibility to suggest a rigorous inquiry, which had extended to eight hours of questioning of Horner himself, should have been asking for every possible device from which messages might have been sent. The credibility of that inquiry is surely shredded.

The man himself retained his usual alacrity after the data drop. There was another protestation of innocence. 'Integrity of the independent investigation… thorough and fair… specialist barrister... dismissing the complaint.' And a change of his WhatsApp avatar, which is no longer the image that appears on the alleged exchanges with the woman in question.

But F1's frustration with the unsatisfactory handling of this controversy — and the deeply unattractive picture it seems to paint of the sport's culture — is palpable. At a time when the sport should be preparing for tomorrow's opening race of the season, it is infested with rumour and speculation.

Wolff wasn't the only one telling Horner and his team that this was not good enough. Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, also took a very dim view of the statement and urged the FIA to enforce proper transparency.

Horner can parrot his 'business as normal' mantra 'till the cows come home but this is a stain. The team's future engine supplier, Ford, issued a warning to Horner when the allegations surfaced that they expect 'very high standards of behaviour and integrity.'

They — and F1 — are still waiting for evidence of that. Other Red Bull sponsors will be feeling extremely uncomfortable about their association.

Another brief press release will not be enough this time because we have reached the moment when F1 wants to be presenting a progressive, modern, transparent, attractive face to the world.

Halliwell threw her husband Horner a surprise 50th birthday party in December last year

(Back row, from left) Jade Jones, Ronnie Wood and wife Sally, Christian Horner, Gary Barlow, Rod Stewart, Penny Lancaster. (Front row) Emma Bunton and Geri Halliwell at 50th birthday

Buried in the small details of the sport's International Sporting Code is Article 12.2.1f. It states a competitor will be deemed to be in breach for: 'Any words, deeds or writings that have caused moral injury or loss to the FIA, its bodies, its members or its executive officers, and more generally on the interest of motorsport and on the values defended by the FIA.'

A growing number inside the sport last night felt Horner and Red Bull are in breach.

For a time, this episode has been passed off as Red Bull power politics. A product of the tug of war between the team Horner runs in Milton Keynes and the parent company in Salzburg — the rival centres divided by a difference of outlook dating back to Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz's death in October 2022.

It's far bigger than that now and Wolff was the one who put things best. 'As a sport, we can't afford to leave things vague and opaque on critical topics like this,' he said. 'It's going to catch us out.'