HELMUT MARKO has accused Christian Horner of playing “dirty games” ahead of his exit from Red Bull Racing.
The advisor is set to leave the F1 team at the end of the year just months after Horner’s sacking.
Marko, 82, has now launched a scathing attack on Horner as he opened up on an apparent power struggle after Dietrich Mateschitz died in 2022.
Mateschitz – an Austrian billionaire – was a founding member of the Red Bull team.
Marko has claimed that Horner started to “cosy up” to the team’s majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya before Mateschitz died.
He told Dutch outlet De Limburger: “Together with Didi [Mateschitz], I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005.
“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.
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“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 added that the final years of working with Horner were “not pleasant” and that “Dirty games were being played.”
Horner has declined to comment on the incidents that Marko mentioned in his interview with De Limburger when approached by SunSport.
Marko added: “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].”
It is worth noting that Marko made the offensive remarks about Perez to Austrian channel Servus TV in September 2023.
Referring to Perez’s up-and-down season, Marko said: “We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form,
“He is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel].”
Marko continued in his De Limburger interview: “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.”
Marko’s claims appear to dispute a Red Bull announcement that he had chosen to leave the F1 team.
He said that the press release by the company was “full of nonsense”.
It is understood that Marko was consulted on the press release and given the opportunity to make amends.
It is also understood that the press release was shared with him in advance and he was able to make changes.
