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Helmut Marko confirmed his departure from Red Bull Racing after the 2025 Abu Dhabi GP. The exit comes amid the instability in the Top management at the team, with Christian Horner getting sacked earlier this year. Marko recently came out and revealed how Red Bull was able to convince the Thai shareholders to sack the former Team Principal.
Christian Horner was accused of harassing an employee, and an investigation into the same took place ahead of the 2024 season, where the former Team Principal wasn't found guilty. Horner reportedly got power hungry and wanted to take control of Red Bull Racing.
Red Bull’s majority shareholders, the Thai Yoovidhya family (through Chalerm Yoovidhya), were reportedly in support of Christian Horner. Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen were against Horner taking over, and the same led to a power struggle at the team, which resulted in Adrian Newey leaving the outfit.
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In July this year, soon after the British GP, Christian Horner was sacked by Red Bull Racing and Laurent Mekies was appointed as the Team Principal. Marko reportedly played a role in Horner’s sacking and was questioned about the same in an interview with De Telegraaf. He was also questioned whether Horner's sacking put an end to the power struggles.
“The power was always essentially in Austria; we were the ones calling the shots. I remember a party in 2022 before the Austrian Grand Prix. Didi (Dietrich Mateschitz) was there, but not in good health. Christian came to me and said, 'He won't make it to the end of the year.' From that moment on, he started getting friendly with Chalerm Yoovidhya. When Didi passed away later that year, he did everything he could to take over with Yoovidhya's support. I did everything I could on behalf of 'Austria' to prevent that.”
When questioned about how Chalerm Yoovidhya, who was in full support of Christian Horner earlier, changed his mind this year, Helmut Marko said,
“We were increasingly able to prove that Horner was lying about everything under the sun. Once Chalerm realized this, he came to his senses.”
Helmut Marko doesn't consider Christian Horner's sacking as a victory
Amid the power struggles in the team, Red Bull struggled with the performance of the RB21 earlier in the 2025 season. Soon after Laurent Mekies was appointed and new upgrades were brought, Max Verstappen was back in contention for wins.
When Helmut Marko was questioned whether he considered Horner's sacking as a win, he replied,
“No. We had to do something because our on-track performance was lagging. Had we done that sooner, by the way, we would have gotten things back on track faster this year, and Max would have become world champion. I'm absolutely convinced of that. But those last years with Horner weren't pleasant. Dirty tricks were played.”
Max Verstappen lost the title to Lando Norris by 2 points and was 104 points behind the championship leader after the Dutch GP.
