THE SEXTING SCANDAL
Christian, who earns £8 million (R192m) a year, was cleared of wrongdoing on 28 February following a three-week internal investigation during which he was questioned for eight hours by lawyers at a secret London location.
The next day, however, a tranche of 79 WhatsApp messages and pictures was leaked from an anonymous email address to 149 senior F1 figures, including Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and other team bosses.
“What’s the outfit of choice today?” Christian allegedly texts his colleague in one of the leaked messages. “Skirt,” she replies. “Which one?” he shoots back. “Have I seen it? Send me a picture to remind me.”
In another message he purportedly asks the woman about her flexibility. “I might need to be slightly flexible like you,” he says, then asks her to take a selfie after she says she can get one leg behind her head.
In another text he allegedly says, “Still in the spanx? You look very attractive in them.” “Just leggings,” she replies. “But it’s what’s in them that counts,” he says.
At one point he asks her to “delete this chat please” – seemingly aware of the danger of it leaking.
Christian, however, has denied the allegations and says he won’t comment on “anonymous speculation” from unknown sources.
“I respected the integrity of the investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way,” he said in a statement.
“It was a thorough and fair investigation conducted by an independent specialist barrister and it has concluded dismissing the complaint made.”
He refused to be drawn on his colleague’s suspension, saying it was a confidential matter between the employee and the company. “As far as I am concerned, we moved on and we look to the future.”