Helmut Marko delivers sharp response to Horner: 'That's a collection of falsehoods'

Horner has recently spoken about his deteriorating relationship with Marko, with whom he worked for more than two decades at Red Bull. The Briton, who was dismissed as team principal in July 2025, has criticised the Austrian's behaviour behind the scenes, particularly following the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022.

Speaking to BILD, Horner accused Marko of working towards his dismissal and criticised his handling of internal information. He also claimed that Marko had failed to offer his condolences following the death of Horner's former partner and mother of his daughter. Horner revealed that the two no longer have a relationship, explaining that they have not spoken since his departure from Red Bull.

The former team principal expanded on his frustrations during an appearance on Up to Speed. Asked whether he sometimes felt responsible for cleaning up situations created by Marko, Horner replied: "Sometimes, yes. And there there periods where it was was fine, it was great, and everybody knew what their roles were. I think where it started to get a little bit messy was, as I say, after Dietrich passed."

Horner suggested that the internal dynamics changed following Mateschitz's death, with information becoming a source of influence within the organisation: "In the desire to become relevant, knowledge was that currency. And so, I would have engineers coming in, Adrian would go bananas at something that was in the media about an upgrade and he's so secretive about that kind of thing, that suddenly we were doing all our talking through the media, and then inevitably you end up having to mop elements of it up."

The Briton explained that he believed these situations created an inaccurate public impression of Red Bull and caused frustration among employees at the team's Milton Keynes headquarters: "I felt it portrayed the team in a way that wasn't true to our character of who we were as an organisation. Certainly the people within Milton Keynes didn't recognise that. So you're having to balance all those dynamics."

Following the latest comments from his former colleague, Marko was approached by F1-Insider for his reaction.

The Austrian declined to engage with Horner's individual allegations, instead rejecting his account altogether: "That's a collection of falsehoods, I don't even want to go into that."

Horner's departure in July 2025 brought an end to his 20-year tenure as team principal, while Marko also left the organisation at the end of that season. Both played central roles in the team's championship successes with Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen, but their accounts of the final years of their working relationship remain sharply different.