Sky Sports F1 pundit Martin Brundle has admitted he feels like the Christian Horner saga is at 'the beginning of the story, rather than the end' as it drags on into the new season.
Horner was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal investigation into allegations of 'inappropriate behaviour' by the Red Bull team principal, but the story is still captivating the paddock.
While the investigation cleared Horner of any wrongdoing and he has continued on in his role as team boss at the world champions, the story has moved on further, with an anonymous source delivering alleged WhatsApp messages from Horner to around 150 F1-related personnel, including team principals and bosses.
Horner vehemently denies the accusations against him, and said in a statement on Thursday that he would not comment on what he called 'anonymous speculation' regarding the supposed messages.
Red Bull said that the matter was 'private' and that 'it would be inappropriate for Red Bull to comment'.
Apparent WhatsApp messages belonging to Christian Horner have been released by an anonymous sourceMartin Brundle has become a fixture of Sky Sports' F1 coverage
No end in sight after Horner verdict
Both McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff have called for both the FIA and F1 to intervene in the matter, while Horner was involved in a meeting with FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem during FP3 in Bahrain, according to Brundle's colleague Ted Kravitz.
Now, Brundle has been assessing the impact that the situation regarding Horner and Red Bull is having on the sport of F1.
"I think it's unquestionable that it's not good for Formula 1 with what's going and I do believe that some actions need to be taken to move this along and to bring this to an absolute conclusion," he told Sky Sports after FP3.
"But as I said earlier on in the week, it feels to me like it's the beginning of the story rather than the end of it, but we'll have to wait and see but we do know that all allegations have been denied.
"It's just a horrible situation, isn't it? Whichever way you look at it."
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