Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton said he’s disappointed with the way the Christian Horner controversy was handled by Red Bull Racing.
Horner was reported by a female employee last December for ‘inappropriate behavior’, and an independent investigation was launched.
Said investigation concluded before the Bahrain Grand Prix and cleared the team principal of any wrongdoing. However, within Red Bull they wanted Horner out of his role.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff had already stated his disappointment with the lack of transparency around the investigation, and now 7-time World Champion Hamilton has taken the opportunity to do the same.
“As someone who loves the sport, it is definitely disappointing to see what is going on right now,” Hamilton said.
“It doesn’t look good from the outside world and it doesn’t look good from within.
“I think it’s a really, really important time for the sport to really show and stick to their values, holding ourselves accountable for our actions.
“It is a really pivotal moment for the sport in terms of what we project to the world and how it’s handled – and it’s not been handled very well to this point and transparency is really key,” he added.
Hamilton said he hopes “to see some progress moving forward,” and said he doesn’t want 2024 to be “a year that continues to go on with this, but it highlights some of the issues we also have within the sport.”
The British driver criticized that “we [the sport] talk about [how] diversity, inclusion and making people feel comfortable in this environment is key, and that’s clearly not the case.”