myurr wrote: ↑04 Mar 2024, 01:39
TFSA wrote: ↑03 Mar 2024, 22:56
f1jcw wrote: ↑03 Mar 2024, 19:37
Remarkable contradiction to how FIA acted with the Suzie article.
No matter how damaging for F1 the Horner saga is, it's still an internal Red Bull issue. So it does not (legally) concern the FIA. The Suzie Wolff case did potentially concern the FIA. That's a big difference.
MBS knows that all he and the FIA can do here is public relations work to try and get the issue resolved. They have no recourse to interfere.
Let me draw your attention to Article 8.7 of the sporting regulations:
If in the opinion of the F1 Commission, a Competitor fails to operate his team in a manner
compatible with the standards of the Championship or in any way brings the
Championship into disrepute, the FIA may exclude such Competitor from the
Championship forthwith
This is absolutely a matter for the FIA given the very real possibility that Red Bull have been involved in a cover up of Horner's activity, which in turn has been a breach of employment law and, one would think, Red Bull policy. The FIA should investigate and gather evidence for the F1 Commission to make a ruling.
I wouldn't expect the FIA to exclude Red Bull from the championship, but I'm sure with the backing of the teams other sanctions could be brought to bear to pressure Red Bull into doing the right thing. With the usual caveats about it being dependent upon Horner's guilt.
You don't get the issue here.
The issue here is that FIA does not have the ability to investigate this. They cannot request Red Bull to hand over information that is essentially private. They do not have the legal power to compel Red Bull to disclose the information pertaining to this as things look now. Any evidence turned over to Red Bull by any involved party is essentially private information, and Red Bull has a
legal obligation to safeguard it.
Therefore, no proper investigation can be carried out by the FIA in this case. And if they can't carry out an investigation, they can't punish. Simple as that. They can't punish Red Bull or Horner based on an unsubstantiated leak, especially considering that leak wasn't supposed to happen in the first place. This information was never meant to be public, and at this point we can't even confirm if it is real at all.
All the FIA can do is trust that the barrister Red Bull appointed did a proper job with the investigation they carried out.