Christian Horner holds public meeting with Red Bull’s 51% shareholder and key ally 

Christian Horner has been spotted having a public meeting with one of his key allies, Red Bull’s majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, before the F1 Bahrain Grand Prix. 

The Red Bull team principal has been under intense scrutiny despite being cleared of inappropriate behaviour on Wednesday, after an anonymous email was sent to high profile figures in F1, team principals and members of the media just 24 hours later purporting to contain evidence of his alleged misconduct. 

Horner arrived in the paddock hand-in-hand with wife Geri on Saturday in a show of solidarity from the former Spice Girl member, who jetted into Bahrain on Thursday evening. 

The pair were seen smiling outside Red Bull’s hospitality as they stood directly opposite Max Verstappen’s manager, Raymond Vermeulen. 

Shortly afterwards, Yoovidhya and his wife Daranee arrived and joined Horner, Halliwell and Red Bull’s tech guru Adrian Newey for a chat that took place front and centre outside of Red Bull’s hospitality. 

Yoovidhya is the Thai businessman who holds a 51% stake in Red Bull GmbH. His father, Chaleo, established the firm with Dietrich Mateschitz in 1984. 

Jos Verstappen surveyed proceedings at Red Bull from the sidelines of the paddock, metres away from the entrance to the team’s hospitality. 

After the meeting concluded, Horner walked alone to Red Bull’s garage less than an hour before the season-opening race. 

The recent controversy surrounding Horner follows reports of a power struggle within Red Bull since the death of co-founder Mateschitz in 2022. 

Mateschitz was a key supporter of Horner and there have been suggestions of political struggle between Horner and the Verstappen camp. 

This was denied by Verstappen at the launch of Red Bull’s RB20 car in mid-February, with the Dutchman insisting their relationship was ‘normal’.

Speaking after claiming pole position for the Bahrain Grand Prix, Verstappen offered further support to Horner. 

When asked whether he had full faith in Horner’s leadership of Red Bull, Verstappen replied: "From the performance side of things, you can't even question that. So that's what I'm also dealing with."