‘Dirty games’: Ex-Red Bull supremo unloads on Horner in extraordinary attack

Recently departed Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has launched an extraordinary attack on former team principal Christian Horner, accusing him of playing “dirty games”.

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Marko made the claim in an interview with Dutch publication De Limburger, where he also seemed to refute at least some parts of Red Bull’s official press release confirming his exit.

Marko’s departure was announced last week, coming just a few months after Red Bull sacked Horner as team principal.

The 82-year-old Austrian had been front and centre of Red Bull’s remarkable run in F1 since their arrival on the grid back in 2005, helping them to six constructors’ championships and eight drivers’ titles.

Marko was responsible for Red Bull’s young driver programme and was behind Sebastian Vettel’s four titles, along with Verstappen’s emergence as one of the all-time greats.

As for his relationship with Horner, Marko recommended Red Bull company founder Dietrich Mateschitz sign him on as the youngest team principal in Formula 1 history having known Horner since Formula 3000.

But when Mateschitz died in 2022, Marko found himself at the centre of what appeared to be a power struggle at Red Bull and pointed the finger at Horner for doing “everything he could” to seize control for himself.

“Together with Didi (Mateschitz), I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. We appointed Horner as team principal, and I was there as a supervisor,” he said.

“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 (Red Bull’s Thai co-owner).

“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 went on to claim that the final few years working with Horner were “not pleasant” and alleged the former Red Bull team principal played “dirty games”.

“Do you remember when it was claimed that I said Mexicans were less focused than Dutch or German people during Sergio Pérez’s time? That was fabricated – possibly by them (Horner’s camp),” he said.

Marko also pointed to rumours in 2024 that claimed he had spread a story about Red Bull’s engine development being behind schedule and that they would lose Ford as a partner as a result.

“I never said that,” Marko insisted.

“But (I think) Horner wanted to use it to have me suspended. Because of Max’s support in Jeddah, that didn’t happen.”

Ultimately, Horner was sacked as team principal in July.

“More and more often, we were able to prove that Horner lied about all sorts of things,” Marko said.

“Once Chalerm realised that too, he changed his mind.”

As for Marko’s departure, Red Bull’s official statement suggested that the 82-year-old decided to walk away.

Marko, however, said the release was “full of nonsense”.

“I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I didn’t read that press release full of nonsense,” he said.

“Let’s just say that a lot has changed at the team in a short period of time. You think you know people well, but in the end that turns out not to be the case… I really won’t say more.”