The tense music, the lingering close-ups, the warrior declarations like ‘you can either hide away or get out there and face it.’ Netflix’s Drive to Survive has found a dramatic hero for the start of its new series.
And would you believe, it’s Christian Horner, the man accused of sending hundreds of messages, some of an alleged sexual nature, to a female Red Bull employee who was promptly suspended.
One always suspected that the cache of WhatsApp messages detailing Horner’s alleged interactions with the woman would be documentary gold, and Box to Box films have not passed up the opportunity.
A version of the ‘business as normal’ mantra, which Horner parroted with tedious regularity in the heat of last year’s controversy as he strutted around the Bahrain paddock, cock of the walk, is even taken as the title of the first episode of the new series.
There’s so much source material about Formula One drivers which could have formed the start of the latest run of shows.
Lewis Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari. The wonderful Carlos Sainz, knowing that he would be ousted to make way for Hamilton, winning in Melbourne days after undergoing an operation to remove his appendix. That’s what heroism looks like.
The data dump of messages on a Google Drive brings Geri Halliwell out to Bahrain for Christian Horner to parade her around the paddock
She loyally rejoins to his tedious self-congratulation as they brush off the scandal
Horner appropriates the narrative in a way which makes you wonder whether the woman in question, who hasn’t worked since she made her complaint, actually existed at all
No. The series opens in the Horner family’s country pile in Oxfordshire, with him and his wife Geri Halliwell climbing into the Range Rover for a drive through the country lanes during which Horner lists for her his achievements in the previous year.
‘Broke the record for the most wins in a year, the most podiums in a year, the most poles to wins in a year…’ he relates. ‘…Ever,’ she loyally rejoins, apparently not bored one bit by his tedious self-congratulation.
‘The truth is, you never know what life’s going to bring,’ Halliwell helpfully adds, as the orchestral music builds.
This brings us to accusations of Horner’s alleged controlling and coercive behaviour towards the female employee and the man in question, dressed in a dark jacket and crisply starched white shirt, going up against journalists who would rather like to ask him about it.
The first episode of the series is a revealing insight into crisis communications and the way that inquiry is closed down.
‘You don’t seem yourself. You OK?’ Red Bull’s director of communications Paul Smith asks Horner ahead of the interview. ‘Yeah, yeah, I’m good. Let’s do this,’ he replies.
The production company later interviews Horner about that interview. ‘It was the first time in front of the media since the whole storm had broken,’ he says, appropriating the narrative in a way which makes you wonder whether the woman in question, who hasn’t worked since she made her complaint, actually existed at all.
Was she just the figment of a TV production company’s imagination?
The first new episode is a revealing insight into crisis communications and the way that inquiry is closed down
The series opens in the Horner family’s country pile in Oxfordshire, with him and his wife Geri climbing into the Range Rover
Amid this whitewash, the comms people fussing around Horner might have mentioned to him the value of contrition and humility
The data dump of messages on a Google Drive brings Halliwell out to Bahrain for Horner to parade her around the paddock – a piece of forced choreography which was excruciating at the time and is much the same on film.
The documentary captures her staring ahead intensely, bracing herself in the face of this episode of monumental personal embarrassment.
When Max Verstappen wins the race and she must congratulate Red Bull’s staff, her husband arrives. There’s an awkward moment when his pitlane headset blocks what looks like a move towards a peck on the cheek.
There is a limit to how much the Drive to Survive team can bite the hand that feeds them. This is not independent documentary journalism.
The production team do attempt to ask Horner challenging questions. Who might have leaked the messages, one of its female producers asks him on camera. ‘That’s the million-dollar question…’ Horner replies. ‘That you know the answer to…’ she replies. He stares ahead, her statement left hanging there.
The leaks, he says, ‘were obviously premeditated to cause me the maximum amount of distraction. The maximum amount of aggravation.’
As the credits roll, we are told that Red Bull’s dismissal of the employee’s complaint was later subject to an appeal which an ‘independent senior lawyer’ rejected.
Verstappen winning in Bahrain is all the personal vindication Horner seems to need. ‘That’s the best (way) to f*** them all,’ is his charming observation. ‘Shut the f*** up.’
Netflix’s Drive to Survive has found a dramatic hero for the start of its new series. And would you believe, it’s Christian Horner
Max Verstappen winning in Bahrain is all the personal vindication Horner seems to need
Naturally, he offers no remorse, remaining utterly oblivious to how deeply odious he looks
The female employee is still suspended on full pay and, it is said, feels her life is on hold. No one on Drive to Survive deemed it necessary to tell us that.
Amid this whitewash, the comms people fussing around Horner might have mentioned to him the value of contrition and humility. The value of saying that if a woman had been offended by his behaviour, then he regretted it.
Naturally, he offers no such remorse, remaining utterly oblivious tohow deeply odious he looks.
Shanks’ sad end
The opening night of the stage play of Red or Dead, the author David Peace’s telling of Bill Shankly’s life story, at Liverpool’s Royal Court theatre last Friday night, captured the incalculable sadness which the great man took to the grave.
‘Shanks’ left Liverpool too soon in 1974, and quickly regretted it, but there was no way back and he drifted around the game’s periphery until his death in 1981, aged 68.
In the autumn of ’74, he agreed to host a series of one-hour chat shows for the newly launched local Liverpool radio station, Radio City, with the Prime Minister Harold Wilson, Lulu and Freddie Starr among his guests.
Bill Shankly at his testimonial in 1975 at Anfield, a year after he had left the club
‘Shanks’ left Liverpool too soon in 1974, and quickly regretted it, but there was no way back and he drifted around the game’s periphery until his death in 1981
They were gold dust, transmitted on Saturday lunchtimes to catch the audience of fans travelling to the match, with a young Elton Welsby among the producers.
Those shows were not cherished as they might have been. As far as I can establish, there is no surviving audio of them – though please tell me if you know otherwise.
Catch the Royal Court show if you can. Peter Mullan plays the lead role superbly, a few hundred yards from the spot where Shankly held up the FA Cup to half a million adoring people in 1965.
Boehly’s remote missives are soul-deadening
The fact that Chelsea fans received the latest scraps of detail on Stamford Bridge’s future from an American billionaire, Todd Boehly, speaking to a financial news agency in Hong Kong, while on business relating to his baseball franchise, really does say everything about how removed the game is from those who have always been its lifeblood.
I do so hope that Chelsea stay at the Bridge, with its incalculable history and soul, but suspect they won’t.
Boehly’s words were soul-deadening stuff for those who believe Chelsea is – and should remain – a great English football club
We’re in a world of ego-driven statement super-stadiums, where football is one of many money-making motivations, and Chelsea are being left behind
We’re in a world of ego-driven statement super-stadiums, where football is one of many money-making motivations, and Chelsea are being left behind.
The Bridge is only the ninth-largest stadium in England. With the value of broadcast deals flattening out, it’s all about finding other ways to make money. The same motivation underpins the notion of England rugby leaving Twickenham.
Boehly has his eyes on basketball revenues. ‘Stadium development is definitely a theme. You’re going to see the NBA go to Europe, they need stadiums,’ he said on Monday, clearly salivating at the thought of those dollars.
Soul-deadening stuff for those who believe Chelsea is – and should remain – a great English football club. Nothing else.
