Christian Horner’s heated rivalry with Zak Brown has taken another turn as it has come to light that Netflix’s Drive To Survive series has reportedly had to erase a strong expletive aimed toward the McLaren team principal from the show.
Red Bull team principal Horner was at the centre of a storm at the beginning of the 2024 Formula One campaign after he was put under investigation for alleged ‘coercive behaviour’ towards an unnamed employee.
The allegations against the 51-year-old were later dismissed. However, ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix, a hoard of texts and photographs, supposedly between Horner and a female colleague, were leaked to influential figures and journalists within the sport.
The scandal rocked the rest of the racing paddock and the upcoming seventh season of Drive To Survive, which is released on March 7, relays the impact of the events on the Red Bull boss.
Despite having the full support from the hierarchy around him at the Austrian racing team, Horner was still subject to much criticism from rival teams, including McLaren and team principal Brown.
In a clip that has surfaced ahead of the first episode of the famous Formula One docu-series, Horner can be heard calling his rival Brown a ‘p****’. However, The Times is now reporting the original edit showed him using the much stronger expletive of ‘****’.
Christian Horner (right) is believed to have used a stronger expletive than the word ‘p****’ towards Zak Brown (left) in a clip on Netflix’s upcoming series Drive to Survive
Netflix cameras captured Horner’s response to the scandal at 2024’s Bahrain Grand Prix
McLaren boss Brown was one of Horner’s most vocal critics following the revelation of allegations against him, which have since been cleared
The reason for such removal is still believed to be unknown, but it is expected the clip was overlaid to maintain the organisation’s reputation.
Episode one of the Netflix series lays bare the strained relationship between Horner and Brown after the bombshell leak, which remains anonymous, in which the employee’s appeal against the initial inquiry was dismissed in August.
Later that month, Horner said that he was ‘relieved’ that there had been a formal conclusion to the allegations of inappropriate behaviour against him.
In a clip circulated in advance of season seven’s premiere on March 7, Horner began addressing the tumultuous start of his 2024 and the bombshell leak itself by stressing: ‘The higher you rise, the sharper the knives.
‘I’ve reached the top of my game and I never thought in a million years I’d have a challenge like this in my career,’ Horner continued.
‘It’s a crucial time of year, in a job that I do, you’re the front face of the organisation. You can either hide away or you can get out there and face it.’
In another clip, Brown made comments in the immediate aftermath of the leak as greater scrutiny was placed on the internal inquiry that had cleared Horner in February 2024.
The McLaren boss said that he advocated for the sports owners and organisers to ‘make sure that all the racing teams and the personnel and the drivers and everyone else involved in the sport are operating in a manner which we all live by.’
In a clip circulated ahead of season seven of Drive To Survive, Horner is seen reacting to the news with shock
Horner and his wife Geri Halliwell are set to appear on the season as it sheds light on the events behind the headlines
More footage then shows Horner walking to Red Bull’s hospitality suite and saying ‘Zak’s a p****. I’ll get through it,’ – which is now believed to have replaced the stronger word ‘****’.
While there was scandal off the track for Red Bull for most of the opening weeks of the season, on it they flew.
Rumours of a potential Max Verstappen departure, which never came to fruition, didn’t disrupt the Dutch driver who won seven of the first 10 races of the season on his way to a fourth World Drivers’ Championship title.
Nevertheless, star designer and chief technical officer Adrian Newey did announce a surprise departure from Red Bull last year following the controversy.
The 65-year-old announced his resignation in May, calling time on nearly twenty years of designing the team’s championship-winning cars.
Newey later joined F1 rivals Aston Martin, with Mail Sport reporting exclusively on his £20million-a-year deal in September.
