Helmut Marko accuses Christian Horner of ‘lying’ in an explosive attack on the former team principal
- Caitlyn Gordon
- 9 hours ago
- 3 min read
Written by Caitlyn Gordon, Edited by Marit Everett
Helmut Marko hits out at Christian Horner, revealing a damning account of his final years working with him.
The Red Bull advisor and junior team recruiter hung up his helmet at the end of the 2025 season. At 82, he announced his retirement from motorsports despite having a contract in place until the end of 2026 with the team.
This is another significant departure for Red Bull, after Christian Horner was sacked mid-season following a string of poor results. The former team principal’s final years in the sport were plagued by controversy after an early season allegation of inappropriate behaviour towards a female employee was revealed in 2024.
Horner was also the central character of a power imbalance at Red Bull after the founder Dietrich Mateschitz passed away in 2022, with notable public disagreements with Jos Verstappen. It was suggested that with Horner’s departure the power imbalance would be resolved but Marko played down the assumption on December 14th:
“That’s how it’s always been described in the media, but it was nothing personal,” Marko said in an interview with Dutch newspaper De Limburger.
The Austrian went on to offer his own account of the internal power politics, providing what he described as a damning account of Horner’s attempt to gain full control of the team:
“Together with Didi [Dietrich Mateschitz], I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. We appointed Horner as team principal, and I was there as a supervisor. In principle, the power was always in Austria—we made the decisions.
“I remember a party earlier that year [2022], ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Didi was there but not in good health. Christian came up to me and said ‘he won’t make it to the end of the year’. From that moment on, Christian began cozying up to Chalerm Yoovidhya.
“When Didi passed away later that year, Christian did everything he could to take control of the company with Yoovidhya’s support. On behalf of ‘Austria’, I did everything possible to prevent that.”
Marko was questioned if Horner’s departure felt like a victory to which he said: "No, we had to act because performance on track was falling behind.
“If we had done it earlier, we would have got things back on track sooner and Max Verstappen would have been world champion this year. I am absolutely convinced of that.”
Verstappen bounced back after the summer break under new CEO and team principal Laurent Mekies, bringing a 104-point deficit down to two points when the chequered flag waved in Abu Dhabi.
The Austrian went on to reflect about his final years working with Horner, claiming “dirty games were being played” and false reports about him were fed into the media:
“Those final years with Horner were not pleasant.
“Dirty games were being played. Do you remember when it was claimed that I said Mexicans were less focused than Dutch or German people during Sergio Perez’s time? That was fabricated—possibly by them [Horner's camp].
“The same goes for the claim that in 2024 I spread the story that our engine development was behind schedule and that we would therefore lose Ford as a partner. I never said that, but Horner wanted to use it to have me suspended. Because of Max's support in Jeddah, that didn’t happen.”
“More and more often, we were able to prove that Horner lied about all sorts of things. Once Chalerm realised that too, he changed his mind.” Marko concluded.
Red Bull will enter 2026 in a new era, one without both Horner and Marko for the first time in the team’s history. The latter concluded his interview with De Limburger stating that Red Bull GmbH’s statement about his departure was “full of nonsense” leaving a lingering question of what happened between the senior advisor and the team.
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