Helmut Marko makes explosive Christian Horner ‘lying’ claims

Helmut Marko has made a series of explosive claims about Christian Horner following his exit from Red Bull, accusing the former team principal of “lying”.

Red Bull confirmed last week that Marko would leave his role as motorsport advisor at the end of the season following a 25-year stint as one of the team’s main bosses.

Speaking to Dutch newspaper De Limburger, Marko downplayed suggestions of a ‘power struggle’ within Red Bull around the time of Horner’s sacking after this year’s British Grand Prix.

“That’s how it’s always been described in the media, but it was nothing personal,” Marko said. 

“Together with Didi [the late Red Bull founder 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.”

Horner played “dirty games” before sacking

Marko went on to claim that Horner played “dirty games” and even “lied” about several claims that supposedly came from the 82-year-old Austrian.

“Those final years with Horner were not pleasant,” he added. “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.”

Asked if Horner’s dismissal felt like a victory, Marko replied: “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.”