Christian Horner will be present at Red Bull’s 2024 F1 car launch on Thursday despite the current internal investigation centred on his alleged “inappropriate behaviour.”

The Red Bull team principal will face the media as the world champions reveal their RB20 car but is likely to be limited in what he can say on the matter due to legal reasons, as his future at the helm hangs in the balance.

Horner, who has been in charge of Red Bull Racing since its inception in 2005, met with the external lawyer tasked with leading the investigation in central London last Friday. He strongly denies the allegations of “inappropriate, controlling behaviour” by a female colleague.

Horner, 50, was also on-site at Silverstone on Tuesday at a secret filming day for Red Bull as he goes about his duties as team principal and chief executive normally, despite the investigation by the team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH.

Lando Norris insists he can take the championship fight to Max Verstappen after declaring the Dutchman’s Red Bull team as “beatable”.

McLaren emerged as the closest contender to Red Bull last year following an impressive mid-season turnaround with Norris scoring seven podiums.

The 24-year-old, gearing up for his sixth season on the Formula One grid, last month committed his future to McLaren by signing a contract extension which will keep him with the British team for at least the next three seasons.

Red Bull won all but one of the 22 rounds last season, with Verstappen cruising to his third world title in as many years.

But speaking at McLaren’s car launch on Wednesday, Norris said: “If you were to ask, ‘are Red Bull beatable?’ I am going to have to say ‘yes’.”

Comment by Kieran Jackson

Formula One team bosses come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Some take the top job with a résumé bristling in world-class engineering, like ex-Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto or current Williams team principal James Vowles. Some are businessmen at heart: Mercedes’ Toto Wolff and McLaren’s Zak Brown the clearest case-in-points on the current grid. But no matter the background, all of them must quickly master the art of politicking: engaging and thriving in the intricate and detailed politics of the sport. Or else, be swept by the wayside.

In this field, Christian Horner comes out on top. A team principal in 2005 at just 31 years of age, a feat executed by way of a close companionship with ex-F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone, 45 years his senior, the Red Bull boss has long been a master at the sport’s dark arts. Increasingly, as he enters 20 years in the sport, Horner has been the great white shark in F1’s “piranha club” – a term coined by ex-McLaren ringmaster Ron Dennis.

Yet for all his spin-doctoring and mind games in showdowns between big bosses and bigger egos – aired most recently on Netflix’s Drive to Survive – it is quarrelling in the background of his own Red Bull team that is the subtext to this week’s controversy.

Daniel Ricciardo spent several seasons as a Red Bull driver and is now back in the team’s stable at the re-titled Visa Cash App RB team.

Understandably he was not passing comment on the allegations made against his former principal Christian Horner but the Australian did admit that he felt like he was back “at home” after returning to the grid last season.

“Getting back into Red Bull and the family, I feel so much at home, so the truth is this is where I want to be,” Ricciardo told Reuters. “I am embracing it a lot more because a year ago I was unsure if I would race Formula One ever again …”

“Deep down I knew I wasn’t done but there was no guarantee I would be offered a seat again.

“I think it is a year when the team takes that step and (is) not seen as a Red Bull junior team anymore. It’s a team that is going to stand on its own two feet and hopefully make some noise.”

Red Bull are set to pay record entry fee for 2024 F1 season. The 2013 revision of the Concorde Agreement that sets out the FIA’s regulations includes a ruling that entry fees for each competing team are determined by their success the season before.

A base fee of $657,837 (£521,691) is paid by all as a base fee, with an extra $6,575 (£5,214) per point on top. The Constructors’ Championship winners are hit even harder: Red Bull must pay $7,893 (£6,259) for each of their 860 points.

Here’s how much each team is set to pay.

Red Bull: $7,445,817 (£5,904,830)

Mercedes: $3,347,012 (£2,654,314)

Ferrari: $3,327,287 (£2,638,672)

McLaren: $2,643,487 (£2,096,391)

Aston Martin: $2,498,837 (£1,981,678)

Alpine: $1,446,837 (£1,147,400)

Williams: $841,937 (£667,690)

Visa Cash App RB: $822,212 (£652,047)

Stake: $763,037 (£605,119)

Haas: $736,737 (£584,261)

Christian Horner will be present at Red Bull’s 2024 F1 car launch on Thursday despite the current internal investigation centred on his alleged “inappropriate behaviour.”

The Red Bull team principal will face the media as the world champions reveal their RB20 car but is likely to be limited in what he can say on the matter due to legal reasons, as his future at the helm hangs in the balance.

Horner, who has been in charge of Red Bull Racing since its inception in 2005, met with the external lawyer tasked with leading the investigation in central London last Friday. He strongly denies the allegations of “inappropriate, controlling behaviour” by a female colleague.

Horner, 50, was also on-site at Silverstone on Tuesday at a secret filming day for Red Bull as he goes about his duties as team principal and chief executive normally, despite the investigation by the team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH.

The world champions, who won 21 out of 22 races last year, will unveil the RB20 at their HQ in Milton Keynes with Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez also attending the event.

Red Bull are live-streaming the reveal of their car at 7:30pm (GMT) on Thursday evening, with interviews with the drivers and Horner following half an hour later.

Lewis Hamilton admits the past few weeks have been “emotional” and “surreal” as the Mercedes driver appeared in public for the first time since his 2025 move to Ferrari was announced.

Seven-time F1 world champion Hamilton is about to embark on his 12^th and final season with Mercedes following the news that he will join the Scuderia next year.

Hamilton, who has won six of his seven titles with Mercedes, was present at the launch of the Silver Arrows’ 2024 F1 car – the W15 – at Silverstone on Wednesday morning and emphasised his “excitement” on the eve of another Formula 1 season.

“It’s obviously been emotional, it’s very surreal to be here,” said Hamilton, when asked about the last few weeks.

The last five days have come and gone with no further updates on the allegations made against Christian Horner. Here are the facts as we understand them:

• Red Bull Formula One team boss Christian Horner attended a meeting on Friday after allegations about his conduct that have cast doubt on his future.
• Horner is currently awaiting the outcome of an investigation into “inappropriate behaviour” levelled against the Red Bull boss by a female colleague.
• Red Bull Racing and the Austrian energy drink parent company, who have not detailed the nature of the complaint, have remained tight-lipped.
• The meeting was held in London at an undisclosed location, rather than at the team’s Milton Keynes factory. It lasted almost eight hours.
• Red Bull are due to launch their 2024 F1 car on Thursday in Milton Keynes ahead of the new season.
• Horner was at Red Bull’s secret shakedown event at Silverstone on Tuesday. Horner will appear at the launch on Thursday.
• Horner’s close friend and former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has denied advising the Red Bull boss to step down.

Following a few reports that former F1 supremo and close friend of Christian Horner, Bernie Ecclestone, advised the Red Bull boss to step down, the man himself has posted on social media to deny the reports.

He said: “To clarify reports by newspapers that I had urged or suggested that Christian Horner should step down from his position in Red Bull is entirely UNTRUE.”