{"id":501087,"date":"2026-02-24T14:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501087\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T14:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T14:09:10","slug":"christian-horner-denies-verstappen-influence-on-f1-exit-points-to-helmut-marko-input","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/501087\/","title":{"rendered":"Christian Horner denies Verstappen influence on F1 exit, points to Helmut Marko input"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christian Horner has spoken out about his exit from Red Bull Racing<\/a> during the eighth season of Netflix’s Drive to Survive.<\/p>\n

The docuseries, which will be released on 27 February, will follow the on and off track stories of the 2025 Formula 1 season. The fourth episode, titled A Bull With No Horns, will cover Horner’s exit from Red Bull.<\/p>\n

After being with the team since it joined the grid in 2005, Horner was replaced as Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal in July 2025 by former Racing Bulls<\/a> team principal Laurent Mekies. The Briton has now had the opportunity to speak about his exit, which he believes was the decision of Oliver Mintzlaff and Helmut Marko.<\/p>\n

“I feel a real sense of loss and hurt. It was all rather sudden. I didn’t really get a chance to say a proper goodbye,” Horner said on Drive to Survive.<\/p>\n

“I never imagined to be in this position. Of course, your immediate reaction when you get delivered a s**t sandwich like that is like, f**k them. I’ve had something taken away from me that wasn’t my choice, that was very precious to me.<\/p>\n

“I only ever gave my best. I did my best for my team, for the people that I represented. But performance this year hasn’t been as strong as previously.”<\/p>\n

\"Max <\/p>\n

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing, Helmut Marko, Red Bull Racing<\/p>\n

Photo by: Bryn Lennon – Formula 1<\/p>\n

When asked if he thought the Verstappens had anything to do with the decision, Horner added: “[Max Verstappen’s] father has never been my biggest fan. He’s been outspoken about me. But I don’t believe that the Verstappens were responsible in any way.<\/p>\n

“I think this was a decision that was made by Oliver Mintzlaff, with Helmut advising from the sideline. I think ultimately things changed within the business, within the group. The founder died. And after Dietrich’s death, I think probably I was deemed to have maybe too much control.”<\/p>\n

There have been rumours about Horner returning to the championship following his exit, although a comeback is yet to be confirmed.<\/p>\n

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Take our 5 minute survey.<\/a><\/p>\n

– The Motorsport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Christian Horner has spoken out about his exit from Red Bull Racing during the eighth season of Netflix’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501088,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,239802,245984,1199,251973,817,813,816,251974,946,85,1511],"class_list":["post-501087","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bahrain-international-circuit","tag-bahrain-pre-season-2","tag-christian-horner","tag-christian-horner-denies-verstappen-influence-on-f1-exit","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-points-to-helmut-marko-input","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sports","tag-trendingteam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501087\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501088"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}