The controversy surrounding Red Bull boss Christian Horner will be included in Formula 1: Drive to Survive, the Netflix series’ creator has confirmed.
The Horner scandal has overshadowed the start of the 2024 F1 season, after he was accused of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by a female employee of his team.
The 50-year-old was cleared, but texts and images supposedly from the investigation were leaked, and the accuser is now appealing the outcome of the case.
Horner, husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, has always denied the allegations and has called for a line to be drawn under the matter, but interest in the saga remains high, especially as it has ignited a civil war within Red Bull.
And it is set to continue until at least the start of next year, after the creator and executive producer of Drive to Survive confirmed that the seventh season of the docudrama would cover the scandal.
‘It will have to be referenced in some capacity, yeah,’ James Gay-Rees told The Telegraph.
‘And they will all want it to be told in a particular way, so it’s about treading that line to keep everybody happy, and to keep Netflix happy, and us – so we can sleep at night with the decisions we’ve made.
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‘You have to have balance. I think Horner is looking OK for the time being, but it doesn’t feel like it’s done yet. It will all depend on how it plays out.
‘I don’t know what he got up to – and I genuinely don’t have an opinion on it, but he’s been through it and you wouldn’t wish that on anybody.’
DTS has not officially been renewed for a seventh season but Gay-Rees’ comments and the sight of Netflix film crews at pre-season testing and the first few grand prix are a clear indication that it’s happening.
Fans will have to wait a while before they see how the Horner saga is depicted however, as the the series typically releases the week before the season opening race, meaning its premiere will be around February 2025.
Horner has featured prominently since the first series in 2018, and he and Halliwell were involved in a very cringe-worthy moment in the sixth season that aired last month.
A scene shows Santa Claus arriving at the couple’s home in Oxfordshire and asking two of their children if their father had been ‘good this year’.
It can be argued that the heightened interest in the scandal is down to DTS which has been credited with transforming F1 into a global phenomenom.
‘Yeah, that’s what Christian said to me: “This is all your fault”,’ Gay-Rees added.
‘But apparently Lewis [Hamilton] losing the 2021 championship was all our fault too. There were some elements of the press at the time who said that Formula 1 was engineering a more dramatic outcome in order to keep Netflix happy.
‘Obviously this wasn’t true.’
The F1 season continues next weekend with the Japanese Grand Prix, where Red Bull and Max Verstappen will be looking to extend their championship lead after a poor race in Australia.
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