In case you were not aware, there was a Formula 1 Grand Prix this past weekend and another one this coming weekend.
It would be easy to forget this, with the amount of non-racing news, headlines and gossip that have surrounded the F1 circus in its opening week, but there are still motor races going on.
One of the stories, however, does concern something much more important than motor racing. There is a very clear imbalance of power in the F1 paddock and has been since the very beginning, as Frontstretch alumni Elizabeth Blackstock wrote in her column concerning the lead story in this – the Christian Horner situation.
I linked to Elizabeth’s piece not in that it’s a great piece – it absolutely is, anyway – but because I as a white male simply can’t do the subject justice. I don’t have to “prove” I’m a “real reporter/fan” or know what is going on here, and I am not harassed because of my gender at the racetrack.
One of the truly beautiful things about motorsport is that working in it in any role can be done by anybody of any gender, and of any background. More should be demanded out of the bosses at the very top of the pyramid to create a welcoming environment where anybody can enter and be a success if they have the talent. We have made tremendous progression in recent years, but it is not enough…
As evidenced by this entire Horner mess. After Red Bull dismissed the grievance last week, a link to a Google Drive with 79 images marked as “evidence” was then sent to all of the top brass at FOM, the FIA and credentialed media.
Obviously, outside of legal reasons, the main reason why these images simply have not been reported out by any major news source is because they cannot be fully verified. If they are faked then, by all accounts, they were good fakes. But it’s still impossible to verify what is reportedly largely a collection of WhatsApp messages.
At the same time, however, the person who anonymously emailed this out to everybody had the connections to have all of those email addresses. I don’t think Toto Wolff’s email is toto@mercedes.com, as an example, and he’s just one of several high profile names these documents were sent to.
And just to be clear, it would be surprising if this came from the woman making these allegations. Remember her? She’s an actual person and not a means to an end. Leaking this like that really damages her legal grounds if she were to continue to…
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