Christian Horner’s autobiography is “a collection of untruths” and “completely incomprehensible”, according to former Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko.
Horner and Marko are former allies who became rivals in a bitter factional dispute that ultimately blew up both their careers with the team.
Marko, 83 years old, was the conduit between motorsport and the Austrian drinks business, founded and run by Dietrich Mateschitz.
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Mateschitz originally put him in charge of developing Red Bull-backed drivers, which brought him into contact with Horner when both were involved as managers in Formula 3000.
Their chance meeting became a working friendship, and when Marko convinced Mateschitz to buy the Jaguar Formula 1 team and turn it into Red Bull Racing, he backed Horner to be its team principal.
Together they ran the team, but the power dynamic was often uneasy, with neither answerable to each other but not always working in parallel.
That delicate balance broke down when Mateschitz died in 2022, creating a power vacuum at the team.
Horner and Marko suddenly became rivals as they contested control over Red Bull Racing and the brand’s other F1 interests.
But the board took issue with the level of control Horner exercised over the team. It had historically operated independently of Austria, but the new leadership saw it as an extension of the Red Bull drinks company.
Following a workplace scandal, the resignations of key staff and the team’s subsequent decline in form, the board pulled the trigger on Horner’s contract halfway through last year, paying him out a staggering £100.5 million ($191.8 million) to cancel his contract — more that had been originally reported.
Marko believed he had won the battle, but by the end of the year he was gone too, with his own series of gaffes — including unilaterally signing two drivers without permission of the board and regular unauthorised media leaks — sealing his fate.
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In Horner’s autobiography Drive, published this week, the Englishman regularly paints Marko as a roadblock to his running of the team.
In one passage he described him turning his nose up at the prospect of hiring Lewis Hamilton because of the pressure it might have applied to Red Bull’s young drivers.
In an interview supporting his book, he recounts Marko dismissing George Russell, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri as potential Red Bull prospects despite them being more impressive than his own hand-picked young guns.
He even suggests Marko had originally refused to sign Verstappen because of the disruptive potential of his father.
Marko denied the negative characterisation to Germany’s Sky Sport.
“It’s a collection of untruths; I don’t even want to stoop to that level,” he said.
“Given the massive severance package he received, one might have expected a bit of loyalty. And, once again: it’s just not my level.”
Marko also took issue with the book being released on 22 October, the same date Mateschitz died.
“I don’t think he even realises that his biography is being released on the very anniversary of Dietrich Mateschitz’s death. But that’s entirely in keeping with this whole book affair.
“To me, it’s all completely incomprehensible.”
Marko did take up one accusation, made to German paper Bild, that he refused to offer Horner condolences after the death of his ex-wife, who died shortly before he was sacked.
“The only thing I wish to set straight is this: I actually sent him a written message of condolence regarding his ex-wife, who passed away from cancer. That is the only thing that matters to me.
“I have no interest [in talking to Horner]. And now this book! I’m only hearing about all of this through third parties. Once the book is out, perhaps he’ll send me a copy, and then I might read it.
“I have no plans to write a book myself — even though there are plenty of things I could write about. But I would never stoop to such a level.”
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‘I FELT SO DISAPPOINTED’ WHEN RICCIARDO QUIT
Horner also touches on Daniel Ricciardo’s decision to quit Red Bull Racing at the end of 2018 after protracted contract negotiations.
“I felt so disappointed,” he wrote. “Dietrich had offered Daniel a great deal; it had been agreed with a handshake. Now he was leaving us for Renault, when several other superior teams, McLaren included, wanted to sign him. None of it made sense to me.”
Elsewhere in the book he claims that Ricciardo saw the writing on the wall as Verstappen grew in strength in the sister car.
“Across the garage, Daniel sensed his time was coming to an end at Red Bull,” he wrote.
“He was now the quicker of our two drivers (he finished fourth in the drivers’ championship; Daniel was sixth) but he also possessed the killer instinct I’d feared Daniel was lacking.”
Both Verstappen and Ricciardo won two races apiece that year, but the Australian suffered seven mechanical retirements to the Dutchman’s three.
“As had been the case with Sebastian and Mark several years previously, Helmut made little secret of where his loyalties stood. In meetings, he only seemed interested in Max’s car, which was frustrating for Daniel … by the summer of 2018, I got the impression that Helmut wanted Daniel to leave at a time when Red Bull wanted to extend his contract.”
He also doubles down on both drivers having been to blame for causing their race-ending crash at the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite the widespread perception that Verstappen had triggered the prang by moving in the braking zone.
He unironically likened it to him equally apportioning the blame between Mark Webber and Sebastian Vettel for their crash at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix.
Speaking to The Age after his decision to quit Red Bull Racing, Ricciardo said he “struggled to let [the Baku crash] go” and admitted that it played a part in feeling unloved at the team.
“There was nothing physical — it’s not like Max had, say, a better or newer front wing than me,” he said.
“But he committed to the team for so long so early and signed such a big deal, and there was a feeling for me that the team was thinking, ‘He’s put more faith in us than you have, and you’re taking so long to negotiate’.
“Perhaps Red Bull thought, ‘You’re not going to go anywhere else’, but I think that’s the wrong mentality.
“I felt like I had to work too hard to justify what I wanted, and what the performances I’ve had say I should be worth. Perhaps the love just wasn’t there.“