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That article from Benson is interesting enough but of course he doesn't know the story either. He hangs his hat somewhat on the statement from Red Bull re dismissal of the complaint being brief and offering not a lot of detail but in my experience, any time a statement is put out that does or could have legal consequences, the advice from the legal fraternity has consistently been to say as little as possible.
Throughout this whole sorry mess, one thing that I've wondered is that age-old question from a gazillion detective stories - "who benefits?".
Originally, when the investigation into the allegations against Horner was announced by Red Bull, the media theory was that Mintzlaff was behind it all - wanting more power over the race team or something like that. Then as "leaks" started to appear in Dutch media, the theory was that either Verstappen snr or Marko (or both) were behind it all. Those theories remained after the complaint was dismissed but alleged text communication was emailed to various F1 figures. Then Marko claimed that he could be suspended (no announcement from Red Bull of any investigation of him prior to that), then Jos had more to say etc. Other theories have suggested that Horner is looking to own the team outright with the Thais, or that the Thais and Austrians are in some kind of power struggle.
We of course haven't had any statement from Red Bull or Red Bull Racing confirming that the complainant has been suspended, the coverage of that has all been based on a single media report that has then spread. I had a video land in my YouTube feed a few days ago, identifying the complainant, saying that she'd been suspended once the time deadline for lodging an appeal had passed, it also said that she was in a relationship with Verstappen Snr - no way of knowing if even one bit of that video was factually accurate.
Through it all though, I've wondered what benefit any of them gain by messing about with Red Bull's largest branding tool, and a very successful one at that. The only theories (which is all we have so far) that might fit that (to my mind) are an ego-driven attack from Verstappen Snr, in support of his alleged girlfriend OR the theory about Horner wanting to buy out Red Bull's share of Red Bull Racing and him co-owning with the Thais. In both cases, I can see that some would benefit from discrediting Horner.
Of course there are competitors in pit lane who might benefit if the wheels fall off the Red Bull Racing bandwagon but I honestly think that is probably too far-fetched and none of them live exclusively in glass houses.
This may be far from over, or we may not hear anything further but one thing is for sure, it has been an unholy mess and quite an extraordinary series of claims, leaks, counter claims and happenings - all (at this stage) to end up right back where we were prior to the claims being made, the only change being that the claimant has allegedly been suspended on full pay.
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