The president of Formula One's governing body, Mohammed Ben Sulayem, said on Friday that the ongoing controversy surrounding Christian Horner is "damaging" the sport, following allegations of inappropriate conduct made against the Red Bull team principal.
In an interview with the Financial Times, the president of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) said: "It's damaging the sport... This is damaging on a human level.
Horner was cleared of misconduct by Red Bull GmbH, the parent company of Red Bull Racing, on Wednesday after an investigation following a complaint of inappropriate behaviour made by a woman employed by the F1 team.
On Thursday, files purportedly related to the investigation were widely distributed to media outlets. The authenticity of the files, which came from an anonymous email account, has not been verified by ESPN.
"I won't comment on anonymous speculation, but to reiterate, I have always denied the allegations," Horner said in a statement read to journalists on Thursday by a team spokesperson; the statement was from Horner, not on behalf of Red Bull.
"I respected the integrity of the independent investigation and fully cooperated with it every step of the way," Horner said. "It was a thorough and fair investigation conducted by an independent specialist barrister, and it has concluded, dismissing the complaint made. I remain fully focused on the start of the season."
Horner visited F1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA boss Mohammed Ben Sulayem separately on Friday to discuss the ongoing controversy that has cast a cloud over the start of the new F1 season.
On the track, Red Bull have continued where they left off last season, with Max Verstappen taking pole position for Saturday's race in Bahrain.
Horner has worked as normal throughout the season opening event and oversaw qualifying from the pit wall as Verstappen beat Ferrari's Charles Leclerc to pole position by 0.2s.
Asked if he still had faith in Horner's leadership, Verstappen said: "Listen, when I look at how Christian operates within the team, he has been an incredible team boss, so absolutely, from the performance side of things, you can't even question that.
"So that's what I'm also dealing with. I speak to Christian a lot, and also throughout the weekend here, he's fully committed to the team, he's also here for the performance. Of course probably a little bit distracted. But like I said before, we just focus on the performance side of things, and that's how we all work together."