Red Bull female employee would go to tribunal if her appeal in Christian Horner case fails - Report

The woman employee who has filed a complaint against Christian Horner to FIA, alleging inappropriate behaviour by the Red Bull team principal, has said she will take her case to an employment tribunal if the current complaint is dismissed, according to a report inThe Guardian.

If the suspended Red Bull employee takes the tribunal route, it would mean that all the private details of the case would come into the public domain. Barring an email that was leaked after Red Bull said its internal investigation gave a clean chit to Horner, nothing related to the case has come out in public so far.

The said email leaked to the FIA, F1, the other nine teams and media, contained messages purporting to be between the woman and Horner. The authenticity of the messages and media has not been confirmed or denied by Red Bull so far.

Complaint filed to FIA

It was earlier this month that the woman submitted an official complaint to the FIA aftershe was suspended by the Milton Keynes-based outfit.According to reports, the employee has not been at Red Bull racing headquarters since March 4after being told to stay home.

The FIA's ethics committee is responsible for noting the complaint and conducting further investigation. After the reports came out, FIA released a statement where it refused to divulge any further details.

"At the FIA, enquiries and complaints are received and managed by the Compliance Officer, and the Ethics Committee where appropriate. Both the bodies operate autonomously, guaranteeing strict confidentiality throughout the process," the FIA said, as perBBC.

"As a consequence, and in general, we are unable to confirm the receipt of any specific complaint and it is unlikely that we will be able to provide further comment on the complaints that we may receive from any parties," it further said.

Since the allegations first surfaced during the pre-season testing, Horner has maintained that he is innocent and that he remains "absolutely confident" of staying at the helm for the remainder of the season.

The Red Bull also said three-time champion Max Verstappen was free toleave the team if he desired and that he wouldn't stand in his way as no individual was bigger than the team.

"It's like anything in life. You can't force somebody to be somewhere just because of a piece of paper.If somebody didn't want to be at this team, then you know, we're not going to force somebody against their will to be here," said Horner.

Despite the off-field controversy, Red Bull and Max havemanaged to win two of the opening three races of the season.

(With inputs from agencies)