Outgoing Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has alleged that Christian Horner played “dirty games” in a bid to get him ousted from his role at the Formula 1 team.
Marko announced his exit from the Milton Keynes-based squad earlier this month, after leading its junior programme for more than two decades.
Having joined the Austrian energy drinks giant’s F1 project in 2005, he led the team to eight Drivers’ and six Constructors’ titles alongside ex-Team Principal and CEO Horner.
Horner himself had been shown the exit doors to the team in July, amid an internal power struggle kicked off by the Briton’s inappropriate behaviour scandal at the start of 2024.
While Marko has denied any suggestion that Horner’s dismissal was politically motivated, the 82-year-old insisted that Horner wanted it to be that way.
“That’s how it’s always been described in the media, but it wasn’t personal,” Marko told De Limburger.
The Austrian delivered a rather insightful glimpse into how Horner had angled in on taking over the reins as Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz’s health deteriorated.
“Together with Didi, I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. We appointed Horner as team principal, and I was there as supervisor,” he explained.
“In principle, the power always lay in Austria; we made the decisions. I remember a party in 2022 prior to the Austrian Grand Prix. Didi was there, but he wasn’t in good health.”
Marko alleged that the Briton had been trying to “cosy up” to Red Bull co-founder Chalerm Yoovidhya in a bid to upstage the Austrian half of the company.
“Christian came up to me and said: ‘He won’t make it to the end of the year.’ From that moment on, he started cosying up to Chalerm Yoovidhya,” he revealed.
“When Didi passed away later that year, he did everything he could to take over with Yoovidhya’s support. On behalf of ‘Austria’, I did everything I could to prevent that from happening.”
Marko laments Horner’s “dirty games”
In the wake of Horner’s departure, Marko had already been hinting at a change of atmosphere within the team.
Referring to Laurent Mekies’ appointment as the new boss, the 82-year-old took a sly jab at his former partner-in-crime.
“He [Mekies] gets along well with people, there is a totally different atmosphere than before,” he had told OE24 back in September.
Now, he has dug deeper into the last few years working with Horner, and how the Briton employed “dirty games” to see him sacked.
In fact, Marko has alleged Horner fabricating and twisting words Marko had uttered to Red Bull’s in-house channel ServusTV and the media to suspend the 82-year-old.
“Those last few years with Horner were not pleasant. There were dirty games being played,” he continued.
“Do you remember me saying, during Sergio Perez’s time, that Mexicans are less focused than the Dutch or Germans? That was fabricated, perhaps by them.
“Just like I supposedly spread the rumour in 2024 that the development of our engine was behind schedule and that we would therefore lose Ford as our sponsor.
“I never said that, but Horner wanted to use it to suspend me. Because Max stepped in at Jeddah, it didn’t happen.”
READ MORE – Helmut Marko issues Max Verstappen warning to F1 rivals
Discussion about this post