FIA will not immediately investigate “damaging” Christian Horner situation

Mohammed Ben Sulayem has confirmed that the FIA will not hold their own investigation into Christian Horner yet.

Complaints against Horner by a female colleague were dismissed by an independent lawyer on the eve of the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix.

But then an anonymous email address sent alleged evidence to hundreds of people within the F1 paddock, including Ben Sulayem.

Whether that alleged evidence is genuine has not been verified. Horner continues to deny the allegations against him.

The Red Bull team principal met Ben Sulayem and F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali on Friday in Bahrain to discuss the matter.

FIA president Ben Sulayem confirmed his organisation would not “jump the gun”, he told the Financial Times.

He vowed to “look into any complaint that comes through our compliance officer”.

Ben Sulayem added: “It’s damaging the sport. This is damaging on a human level.

“It’s the beginning of the season. F1 is becoming so popular.

“We just need to enjoy the beginning of the season. Look at the competition. Why do we overshadow it with negativity?”

Rival team bosses have called for more clarity into the Red Bull F1 team's parent company's decision to dismiss the claims against Horner.

Toto Wolff said: "Well I just read the statement, which was pretty basic, I would say.

"My personal opinion is we can’t really look behind the curtain. 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 and yesterday, the sport has received the message that it’s all fine, we’ve looked at it.

“I believe with the aspiration as a global sport, on such critical topics, it needs more transparency, and I wonder what the sport’s position is. We’re competitors, we’re a team and we can have our own personal opinions or not.

“But it’s more like a general reaction or action that we as a sport need to assess, what is right in that situation and what is wrong.”

McLaren CEO Zak Brown said: “I think the sanctioning body has a responsibility and authority to our sport, to our fans.

“I think all of us in Formula 1 are ambassadors for the sport on and off the track, like you see in other sports. So I think they need to make sure that things have been fully transparent with them. I don’t know what those conversations are.

“It needs to be thorough, fully transparent, and that they come to the same conclusion that has ben given by Red Bull, and that they agree with the outcome.

“But I think until then, there’ll continue to be speculation, because there are a lot of unanswered questions about the whole process. So I think that’s what’s needed by those who run the sport to be really able to draw a line under it.

“Until then, I think there’ll continue to be some level of speculation by people and I don’t think that’s healthy for the sport.”