Speaking to De Limburger, the long-serving Red Bull adviser said tensions inside the team escalated after the death of founder Dietrich Mateschitz, a moment he believes Horner tried to use to increase his control over the Formula 1 operation.

According to Marko, the structure of Red Bull Racing had always been clear. “Together with Didi, I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005,” he explained. “We appointed Horner as team boss, and I was there as supervisor. Basically, the power was always in Austria, we decided.” That balance, he claimed, began to shift as Mateschitz’s health declined.

Marko recalled a party ahead of the 2022 Austrian Grand Prix as a turning point. “Didi was there, but not in good health,” he said. “Christian came to me then and said, ‘He won’t make it to the end of the year.’” From that moment on, Marko believes Horner started to align himself more closely with Red Bull co-founder Chalerm Yoovidhya. “When Didi died later that year, he did everything he could to take over with Yoovidhya’s support,” Marko added. “I did everything I could on behalf of ‘Austria’ to prevent that.”

The relationship between Marko and Horner continued to deteriorate in early 2024, when accusations of inappropriate behaviour against Horner surfaced. Marko said the situation destabilised the team and led to intense internal politics. “Those last years with Horner were not pleasant,” he stated. “Dirty games were played.”

Marko also accused Horner of attempting to have him suspended by twisting his words. He pointed to past controversies as examples. “Do you remember when it was claimed I said Mexicans are less focused than the Dutch or Germans?” he said. “That was fabricated.” He also denied spreading rumours about Red Bull’s engine project in 2024. “I never said that, but Horner wanted to use it to suspend me. Because Max stepped in at Jeddah, it didn’t happen.”

Despite Horner’s exit in July, Marko rejected the idea that it was a political victory for the Austrian side of the company. “That is how it has always been described in the media, but it was nothing personal,” he said. Instead, he stressed that poor results on track played a major role. “We had to do something because performance on the track was lagging,” Marko explained, adding that earlier action could have changed the season. “Had we done that earlier, Max would have become world champion. I’m absolutely convinced of that.”

Marko also revealed that Yoovidhya was eventually persuaded to support Horner’s removal. “More and more often we were able to show that Horner was lying about everything and anything,” he said. “Once Chalerm realised that too, he reconsidered.”