Christian Horner's attempts to gain more power at Red Bull reason for the alleged rift in the Austrian team: Reports

It is being reported that Christian Horner's attempt to gain more influence within Red Bull is one of the reasons behind the alleged rift in the team.

It has been a pretty chaotic start from the Austrian team off-track, as they find themselves tackling an alleged rift at the organizational level with the team getting divided into two halves, one that supports Christian Horner and the other that wants to see him leave the team.

According to Formula Passion, Christian Horner tried to approach the Yoovidhya family, who own 51% of the parent company, with an offer from financiers in the British area in an attempt to buy some parts of the F1 team. If the Briton is successful in owning some part of the team, he will be the second team boss on the grid, after Toto Wolff, to do so.

According to the report, this alleged move rubbed the Austrian shareholders the wrong way, as he manufactured the move behind their backs. This resulted in an alleged rift in the team even before the latest news about Christian Horner's personal matter becoming public.

Christian Horner chimes in on the alleged evidence leak ahead of the Bahrain GP

The Red Bull team principal stated that the alleged evidence leak which was sent to the media containing his pictures and text exchanges was 'speculative' and refused to comment on the motives for the leak.

Speaking to the written press on Saturday, Christian Horner said (via Independent):

“I am not going to comment on anonymous speculative messages from an unknown source. I am not going to comment on what motives whatever person may have for doing this."

He added:

"Obviously, it has not been pleasant with some of the unwanted attention, but the focus is very much on the cars and my focus has been on what is happening on the track and the result today demonstrates where the focus is and we move onwards."

The Red Bull team boss stated that he was 'confident' of retaining his position despite all the negative reports surrounding him, saying:

“There was a full, lengthy internal process that was completed by an independent KC and the grievance that was raised was dismissed. End of. Move on. You could see what it (the win) meant to the whole team. It is better to do your talking on the track. I have always been entirely confident that I would be here and my focus is on the season, and the races we have ahead.”