‘Marko played a key role in Horner's dismissal and was present at crucial strategy meeting’

During a Zoom meeting on Monday, 7 July, Oliver Mintzlaff informed the shareholders Chalerm Yoovidhya and Mark Mateschitz about the planned dismissal of Horner. They then gave the green light, after which Mintzlaff and Marko traveled to London to make the decision official the following day.

Earlier, during the race weekend in Austria, Mintzlaff had already made it clear that he wanted to take measures at the personnel level.

According to the German media, Marko was also present at that meeting, along with Yoovidhya and Mateschitz. The disappointing results of Red Bull, combined with Verstappen’s exit clause – which stipulates that he may leave if he is not in the top three of the standings by the end of July – would have played a major role in the decision.

BILD further writes that Horner was earlier pressured into relinquishing one of his roles: the marketing responsibility at Racing Bulls. Despite requests from his bosses to resign, he would have tried to keep that position. Eventually, shareholder Yoovidhya, with whom Horner previously had a good relationship, had to personally intervene by threatening with completely breaking all ties.

How much the relationship with Yoovidhya had cooled off became painfully clear for Horner on 2 July. On that day, Horner organized a traditional clay pigeon shooting event around his property near Oxford, just before the race weekend at Silverstone. Among the forty invitees were supposed to be both Yoovidhya and Max Verstappen, but neither of them showed up according to the German newspaper. Verstappen was said to have cancelled due to stomach issues.

A week later, Red Bull officially parted ways with Horner, who had led the team for over twenty years.