F1 CHIEF Christian Horner last night faced new allegations that he tried to pay a £650,000 cash settlement to a woman employee who received "sexually suggestive" texts.
The 50-year-old Red Bull Racing boss - and husband of Spice Girl Geri Halliwell - was thought to have been under investigation over alleged "controlling" behaviour at work.
But a Dutch newspaper, which claims to have seen messages at the heart of the probe, alleges they were "sexually orientated".
And the shock claims last night ramped up heartache for pop star Geri, 51, who was said to be "in floods of tears" when the scandal first broke.
Dashing former racing driver Horner - who runs World Champion Max Verstappen's all-conquering Red Bull team - endured an eight-hour grilling last week. He denies any wrongdoing.
Red Bull's Austrian parent company flew an independent lawyer to the UK to question both the multi-millionaire race ace and his accuser.
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Team Principal Horner denied all the allegations against him and was present at the launch of Red Bull's RB20 2024 car on Thursday.
Neither he nor the woman have been suspended and have continued to work among 1,500 staff at Red Bull Racing's sprawling high-tech campus in Milton Keynes, Bucks.
But Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that Horner allegedly sent sex messages to the woman employee "over an extended period of time".
Messages were said to have been saved and presented as evidence to the external barrister running the inquiry after the woman made a complaint last December.
De Telegraaf also claimed Horner's lawyers tried to settle the case with a payment of £650,000 - and that senior Red Bull management were aware of his offer.
Horner publicly addressed the allegations against him for the first time at the launch of the RB20 this week.
He said: "Inevitably there has been a distraction, but the team are very together.
"Everybody's focused on the season ahead, so it's been very much business as normal and the support has been fantastic.
Christian Horner's life and career
CHRISTIAN Horner is among the most well-known names in Formula One having helped build Red Bull into one of the biggest teams in the sport.
1973 - Born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
1991 - Wins a Formula Renault scholarship after impressing in karting races
1993-1997 - Competed in a host of competitions including British Formula Three, British Formula Two, and Formula 3000
1997 - Founded and developed the F3000 team Arden
1999 - Retired from driving and continued developing the Arden team
2005 - Appointed head of Red Bull team, becoming the youngest ever team principal at that time
2009 - Wins his first races as team principal with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber
2010 - Wins the Constructors' Championship and Drivers' Championship with Vettel - the first of four doubles in a row
2013 - Has a daughter with ex-wife Beverly Allen shortly before the couple split
2014 - Gets engaged to Spice Girls member Geri Halliwell
2015 - Marries Halliwell in Woburn, Bedfordshire
2017 - Horner and Halliwell welcome their son
2021 - Wins another Drivers' Championship with Max Verstappen, pipping Lewis Hamilton on the final lap of the season
2022-23 - Red Bull win the Drivers' Championship and Constructors' Championship two years in a row
"In situations like these, you see where the strengths are, and it's been overwhelming the support that I've had from within the team.
"The drivers have been incredibly good, the partners, it's been incredible.
"There have been some allegations made, which I fully deny, so that the investigation is very much going on in the background whilst preparing for the season ahead, and hopefully it will be concluded in the near future."
F1 Insiders said after Horner was grilled last week that he was not "expected to survive in his role" at Red Bull.
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But another source told The Sun: "Christian has not been sacked or asked to resign and he is not going to resign."
Red Bull Racing declined to comment last night and the drinks firm's Austrian parent company did not respond to inquiries about the Dutch paper's report.
ANALYSIS: Horner stands defiant
By Ben Hunt, Motorsport Correspondent
CHRISTIAN HORNER faced the music for the first time since the bombshell dropped 12 days ago.
And he looked like a man who had not slept a wink of sleep since.
Dressed in his usual attire of jeans, white shirt covered by a jumper and dark jacket but unusually he wore glasses.
He sat on a plastic chair surrounded by journalists who were under the instruction not to press the 50-year-old about the internal investigation he has been subjected to.
But this is Horner's team - the one he has helped build since he first walked through the door here in Milton Keynes in 2005.
He would not be pigeonholed. To his sizable credit, he did not bulk at the carefully worded questions designed to elicit as much information as possible without straying into the red.
He answered everything he was faced with, repeating four times that he denied all the allegations made against him by a female colleague.
He spoke softly and calmly and he even made a joke at the end of the media session where he asked what we thought about the new car - there had not been a single question about it.
The matter is out of his hands and being taken care of at the energy drink's HQ in Austria after they chose to start their own private investigation.
The message from Horner is clear - that he has nothing to hide, this is his team and they were launching their challenger for 2024 in their Milton Keynes HQ looking to defend their titles.