Christian Horner has been criticized by The Times journalist for the Red Bull boycott of Sky F1 and for using abuse and mental health to distract from his own breach of the rules.
The Times published a fierce column by journalist Matthew Syed entitled “Delusional Horner is tarnishing the whole sport of Formula One”, in which he criticizes Red Bull boss Christian Horner for the way he has been behaving lately.
“Lewis Hamilton has been stolen,” Syed wrote.
“I think we should make that clear at the beginning of this column. I highlight this because Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Max Verstappen have decided to boycott Sky Sports after one of their reporters used the word in relation to the 2021 season finale, following the controversial restart of the safety car in the final moments of the race.”
“Even the FIA, the sport’s governing body, admits this was a significant mistake by the race director. So let me say that again: Hamilton was stolen. “If the rules had been applied correctly, he would now have the eighth world title,” he pointed out.
“If the race director had done his job, Mercedes would have boasted another champion. Horner may now be considering whether to block The Times, and perhaps The Sunday Times, based on this claim.”
“If so, it won’t be long before Red Bull starts avoiding all media, and possibly all social media. Because ‘stolen’ is how most people think of that incident.”
“This doesn’t mean Hamilton was robbed by Horner or Verstappen – it just means he was denied what was rightfully his, which is pretty much the textbook definition of the term.”
Syed then went on to further criticize Horner as he said the mental health of Red Bull employees was suffering as other teams pointed out that his team had broken the rules when they breached the 2021 budget cap.
“Instead of admitting his mistake, Horner lashed out at those who dared to criticize him. At a press conference last week, he said the censorship received by Red Bull had undermined the ‘mental health’ of his team and led to staff children being ‘bullied’ on the pitch.”
“I always thought Jose Mourinho (current Roma coach) was the ultimate in rudeness under pressure (to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway), but Horner took it to a new level,” he states.
“How dare the Red Bull boss raise sensitive moral issues such as bullying and mental health to deflect from his own wrongdoing.”
“If there are mental health issues at Red Bull as a result of their breach of the rules, the responsibility lies with them and them alone; not with those who criticized them.”
“To say otherwise is an inversion of Alice in Wonderland, criticizing those who stayed within budget. Like Mourinho at his worst, Horner is ready to blame everyone else, distort reality, even boycott those whose opinions he disagrees with, to maintain the pretense that everything Red Bull does is clean and that only the bad intentions of others obscure this fact.”
In the end, Syed went so far as to call Horner a loser.
“The older a man is, the more he realizes that it is not victory that matters in life, but the way a man behaves.”
“Horner may have won both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships this season, but by his manner and example, he tarnishes not only his team, but F1 as well.”
“You might even – at the risk of another boycott – call him a loser,” Syed concluded.
Source : The Times