Formula 1 legend Eddie Jordan has launched a scathing attack on Red Bull over its handling of the Christian Horner sexting probe.
The former racing team owner blasted the formal investigation into Horner’s behaviour as “absurd” and said the damage it had done to the team was “already huge”, The Sun reports.
Jordan, who founded the now defunct Jordan Grand Prix team which competed from 1991 to 2005, told Red Bull to “pull the ripcord now” and make a decision over Horner’s fate at the team.
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The Red Bull chief, 50, is expected to find out within the next 48 hours if he is out of a job after a three-week probe into controlling behaviour and sexting allegations made by a female colleague.
“I have experienced many wrong decisions,” Jordan said to F1 Insider.
“But the Red Bull situation is the most absurd thing I’ve ever seen.
“Of course, there is initially the presumption of innocence for Horner. But does anyone seriously believe that the employee made up her mind about the allegations?”
Jordan, a close friend of Red Bull’s design maestro Adrian Newey, added: “Red Bull’s loss of image is already huge. Someone has to pull the ripcord now.”
Horner vehemently denies all the allegations and has repeatedly said he hopes for a swift end to the investigation.
F1 insiders believe the decision will come before the season-opening Grand Prix which first kicks off on Wednesday.
It comes as the full report into the behaviour probe, which is being handled by the energy drink’s HQ in Austria, could be kept secret by Red Bull.
It is understood that the investigation, which was carried out by a specialist barrister and included an eight-hour grilling on February 9, has now concluded.
Yesterday, two-time world champion Max Verstappen spoke out again about the investigation of his racing boss.
Speaking to reporters at the Milton Keynes launch, he said it will be “nice for everyone” when the investigation is resolved.
The Red Bull driver added: “So it’s better that I just focus on my own performance because that’s already the day job.
“But I guess … for everyone, it’s nice, of course, when things are resolved. But that’s the only thing that I can say about that.
“Everyone who is here, they’re all focusing on the performance of the car, as they should.”
His statements echo those from inside the Red Bull Racing team whose go-to phrase has been “business as usual” while they wait for a conclusion to the saga.
Horner, who has led the Austrian team since its formation in 2005, oversaw pre-season testing last week in Bahrain and was all smiles as he pictured in the pit lane.
But other team principals have been calling for greater “transparency” in the world of F1 in the wake of the scandal engulfing Red Bull.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff described it as “an issue for all of Formula One”, while McLaren chief Zak Brown called the allegations “extremely serious”.
Brown hoped that they were being handled in a “very transparent way” and “swiftly” as “these are not the headlines that Formula One wants or needs.”
Since the scandal broke, Horner’s Spice Girl wife Geri Halliwell, 51, has stood by her husband.
Last weekend, she was pictured smiling alongside Horner, who she married in 2015, at a horse racing event in Badbury Rings, Dorset.
However, fresh reports say the Spice Girls star is “mortified and angry” over the probe.
But she has privately insisted her husband, with whom she shares a son, has done nothing wrong.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced with permission.