Christian Horner has pinned the blame of his Red Bull sacking on Helmut Marko, the latest series of Formula 1’s Drive to Survive has revealed.
Horner was dismissed as Red Bull CEO and team principal in July 2025 after 20 years in charge of the F1 team he led to eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ world titles.
The 52-year-old Briton’s sacking came following months of declining form for Red Bull and internal power struggles, while Horner had also found himself at the centre of a scandal, having been accused of sexual harassment and coercive, controlling behaviour by a female employee.
Horner’s sacking from Red Bull is covered in the latest season of F1’s Netflix documentary Drive to Survive, which is released this Friday.
In episode four, A Bull With No Horns, Horner blames his exit on Marko and Red Bull GmbH managing director Oliver Mintzlaff.
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“I feel a real sense of loss and hurt,” Horner tells the Netflix cameras, reports The Telegraph. “It was all rather sudden. I didn’t really get the chance to say a proper goodbye. I never imagined to be in this position.
“Of course your immediate reaction when you’re delivered a s*** sandwich like that is to say ‘F*** them’. I had something taken away from me which wasn’t my choice which was very precious to me.”
Asked if he felt the Verstappen’s had anything to do with his dismissal, as was speculated at the time, Horner replies: “His father has never been my biggest fan. He’s been outspoken about me.
“But I don’t believe the Verstappens were responsible in any way. I think this was a decision made by Oliver Mintzlaff with Helmut Marko advising from the sideline.
“I think ultimately things changed within the business, within the group. The founder died, and after Dietrich [Mateschitz]’s death, I was probably deemed to have maybe too much control.”
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Horner also claims that the decision to replace Liam Lawson with Yuki Tsunoda after just two races of the 2025 season “wasn’t his choice”.
Tsunoda would later go on to lose his Red Bull seat at the end of the campaign, with the Japanese driver replaced by Isack Hadjar for 2026.
“I was always pushed to take drivers from the [Red Bull] young driver programme,” he says. “Helmut was a big driver in it.”
Marko’s explosive ‘lying’ claims about Horner
Horner’s revelation in Drive to Survive comes after Marko, who left Red Bull at the end of 2025, accused the former team principal of “lying” and playing “dirty games”.
“Those final years with Horner were not pleasant,” Marko told Dutch newspaper De Limburger in December. “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].
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“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.”
Horner is plotting a return to F1 and is among a group of investors interested in purchasing a stake in the Alpine F1 team.
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