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Helmut Marko launched a remarkable attack on Christian Horner after leaving his post at Red Bull. Horner was sacked in July, while Marko’s exit was painted as a mutual decision.
Marko accused Horner of playing ‘dirty tricks’ during his ‘last few years’. Founding members of the team in 2005, they worked together for two decades.
Marko went as far as to claim that Horner was ‘lying about everything and anything’ and planting ‘fabricated’ stories in the media to damage his reputation.
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On the track, he declared that Red Bull would have won the 2025 world championship with Max Verstappen had Horner been removed from his post earlier. Verstappen was already 69 points off the pace when Laurent Mekies took over.
Christian Horner emerged from Red Bull in a ‘better’ position than Helmut Marko
Reacting to these comments on the AS Colombia YouTube channel, Juan Pablo Montoya called the situation ‘sad’. He says it has overshadowed the celebration of Marko’s achievements.
Marko, Horner and Adrian Newey were arguably the main architects of Red Bull’s success as they won a combined 14 championships in the Sebastian Vettel and Verstappen eras.
Montoya suspects that the comments come from a place of envy. Marko received an £8.7m payoff from Red Bull, around ten times smaller than Horner’s enormous severance package.
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“There were certainly dramas, fights and manipulation by Christian, 100%,” Montoya, who raced for Marko in F3000, said. “But Helmut isn’t a saint. Neither of them are saints.
“What surprises me is at this point is that it was unnecessary. Why close the Red Bull chapter, all the good they did, all the championships Helmut won, all the drivers he brought in… Nobody is talking about Helmut, what the great Helmut Marko did.
“He focused on the fight with Christian and didn’t focus on [that]. It’s sad, because the work he did was spectacular. People don’t agree with the way he did things, but he really did a very good job.
“Dirty games were played on both sides. You know what happened? They both got sacked – I shouldn’t say this – and one came out much better than the other.”
The compensation figures were determined by a number of factors, likely including salary and contract length.
Is this the real reason Helmut Marko has left Red Bull?
When Marko’s position came under threat early in the 2024 season, Verstappen publicly threatened to leave. But the Dutchman’s stance has softened since.
In fact, one report claims Verstappen was unhappy with Marko after he unilaterally signed Alex Dunne to the Red Bull programme. It cost the team a six-figure sum to get out of the contract.
This seems to be part of a pattern of behaviour following Horner’s exit. Marko told Isack Hadjar he was joining Red Bull in August, months before Laurent Mekies and Red Bull sports boss Oliver Mintzlaff were prepared to make a definitive call.
Marko expected to become significantly more powerful in Horner’s absence, but Red Bull had a different vision for their new structure. Perhaps that’s why they felt it was the right time to part ways.
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