Helmut Marko: Christian Horner played dirty games at Red Bull

 Christian Horner has been accused of playing “dirty games” by the outgoing Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko.

Marko, who leaves the Formula One team at the end of the year, launched the extraordinary attack in an interview with Dutch publication De Limburger.

Horner, who was Red Bull’s principal since their inception in 2005, was sacked over the summer. It came 17 months after he was accused of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behaviour by a female employee. He had been twice cleared of the claims, first after an internal investigation conducted by a lawyer, then by another lawyer who dismissed the complainant’s appeal.

In his interview launching a new attack on Horner, Marko addressed a perceived power struggle in the team following the death of founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022.

Marko claims that Horner “started cosying up” to Chalerm Yoovidhya, the Thai businessman and majority shareholder, in the months before.

Marko effectively confirmed a power struggle “described in the media” was correct, “but it wasn’t personal”.

“Together with Didi [Mateschitz], I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005,” he explained. “We appointed Horner as team principal, and I was there as supervisor. 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.

“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. 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.”

The final years working with Horner were “not pleasant”, Marko added. “Dirty games were being played,” he said. “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 also cited rumours in 2024 that “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 [I believe] Horner wanted to use it to have me suspended,” Marko alleged. “Because of Max’s [Verstappen’s] support in Jeddah, that didn’t happen.”

The interview appears to contradict a recent announcement from Red Bull that Marko had made his own decision to walk away from the F1 team.

Marko labelled the press release from the parent company as “full of nonsense”. Horner, meanwhile, agreed a £80m settlement with Red Bull, which will allow him back in the paddock as early as next spring.

Horner is said to be seeking business partners who might help him buy a stake in a new team.