Christian Horner has praised his wife Geri for “seeing through a lot of things” amid the inappropriate and controlling behaviour allegations which threatened to destabilise his life earlier this year.

The Red Bull team principal, 51, has been embroiled in controversy this season after an internal grievance procedure which was being carried out by the team’s parent company in Austria leaked into the public domain, along with hundreds of messages purporting to be between himself and his accuser.

Horner was cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent barrister, with the female complainant being suspended on full pay. An appeal by the complainant was also later dismissed.

At the height of the controversy, Horner’s wife, the former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell, stood by him by attending the Bahrain Grand Prix where the couple held hands and shared a kiss in front of cameras.

“What happened at the start of the year felt like a perfect storm,” Horner said in an interview with the Daily Mail ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

“In life, it is a great lesson that the more success you have, the more of a target you become. Anything that can be used to unsettle and destabilise you and the team and the business. What disappointed me more than anything was the steps that people went to in order to try and achieve that.

“You just stay true to yourself and I am very fortunate that I have got a tremendous family.” He described his wife as being  “absolutely outstanding and hugely supportive”, adding that her seeing things from an “outside perspective” had helped him “navigate through the difficult waters”.

Geri had to leave her home under a blanket to avoid photographers as Formula One rivals such as McLaren CEO Zak Brown and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff called for Horner to be sacked if he was found guilty, and demanded transparency during the investigation. However, Horner told the Mail that, despite the pressure, he did not envisage a situation which saw him leaving his post at Red Bull.

Horner added that he never felt that he had to walk away from F1 because he believed in “the process” and that he had had support from the shareholders and from within the company. “It was actually quite emotional before the first race when I addressed the factory,” he said. “The support that the team gave me and the reception the team gave me, I will never, ever forget that. I had a lot of support from within the sport. People like James Matthews at Williams, who made a point of coming to see me in Bahrain, were incredible.”

Matthews, 49, is the husband of Pippa Middleton, the younger sister of the Princess of Wales. A former professional racing driver, and heir to the Scottish feudal title of Laird of Glen Affric, he sits on the board of Williams Racing.

Red Bull’s Dutch driver Max Verstappen is on the verge of winning a fourth consecutive world title in Las Vegas after coming out on top in a long battle with Britain’s Lando Norris. Verstappen, 27, will be assured of the title if he beats his McLaren rival in Nevada.

Horner said he was gratified by the fight his team had shown, having a dig at Wolff in particular, who chose this week to reopen old wounds between them. Wolff accused Horner of being the only team principal to drag his feet when the FIA opened a short-lived conflict of interest probe last December into the relationship between the Mercedes F1 team principal and his wife Susie Wolff, who runs the all-female F1 Academy series.

Horner said he was surprised to see Wolff’s comments and that he would not “rise to the bait”.