Christian Horner facing claims he ‘sent sexual messages to female employee & offered payment to stop probe’

SPICE Girl Geri ­Halliwell’s F1 chief hubby is  facing new claims — that he sent “sexually suggestive”  texts to a woman employee.

Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner — who  vehemently denies the allegations  — was thought to have been under investigation only over alleged controlling behaviour at work.

But Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, which yesterday claimed to have seen ­messages at the heart of the probe, alleges that  they were “sexually orientated”.

De Telegraaf reported that Horner allegedly sent sex messages to the woman employee “over an extended period of time”.

Messages were said to have been saved and presented as evidence to the external ­barrister running the inquiry after the woman made a complaint last December.

De Telegraaf also claimed Horner’s lawyers tried to settle the case with a  payment — and that senior Red Bull management were aware of his offer.

Mr Horner was last night categorically denying the allegations and said to be taking legal action against De Telegraaf.

The shock claims will have ramped up the heartache for pop star Geri, 51, who was said to have been “in floods of tears” when the scandal first broke.

Former racing driver Horner, who runs world champion Max Verstappen’s all-conquering Red Bull team, endured an eight-hour grilling last week.

Red Bull’s Austrian parent company flew an independent lawyer to the UK to question the multi-millionaire race ace and his accuser.

Team principal Horner denied all the allegations against him and was present at the launch of Red Bull’s RB20 2024 car on Thursday.

Neither he nor the woman have been suspended and have continued to work among 1,500 staff at Red Bull Racing’s British HQ in Milton Keynes, Bucks.

Horner publicly addressed the allegations against him for the first time at the launch of the RB20 this week.

He said: “Inevitably there has been a distraction, but the team are very together.

“Everybody’s focused on the season ahead, so it’s been very much business as ­normal and the support has been fantastic.

“In situations like these, you see where the strengths are, and it’s been overwhelming the support that I’ve had from within the team.

“The drivers have been incredibly good, the partners, it’s been incredible.”

“There have been some allegations made, which I fully deny, so that the investigation is very much going on in the background whilst preparing for the season ahead, and hopefully it will be concluded in the near future.”

F1 insiders said after Horner was grilled last week that he was not “expected to survive in his role” at Red Bull. But a source told The Sun: “Christian has not been sacked or asked to resign and is not going to resign.”

Red Bull Racing declined to comment yesterday and the drinks firm’s Austrian parent company did not respond to inquiries about the Dutch paper’s report.

Source: Motorsport - thesun.co.uk