Helmut Marko issues stinging rebuke in fresh Red Bull F1 row

Helmut Marko has delivered a curt response to a recent claim made by Christian Horner about the breakdown of their relationship.

The 52-year-old Brit was brutally frank about his current relationship with the long-time Red Bull advisor in a recent interview with German newspaper Bild, saying simply: "We don't have one."

Horner also said it 'got to him' that Marko was - he claims - very involved in his removal from the team in the wake of his former partner's death, not even offering his consolations for the loss.

That interview with Bild followed and elaborated on one of many things the former Red Bull team principal said about Marko in his forthcoming memoir 'Drive', in which he has painted a picture of his side of the tensions between the long-time colleagues.

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Marko: Horner's book a collection of untruths

Asked in the interview about the last time he spoke to Marko, Horner revealed that it was on his last day at Red Bull, shortly after his former partner Beverley Allen's death from eye cancer.

“On my last day at Red Bull," he said, "the two of us sat in my office and shook hands at the end. There’s been radio silence ever since. But that’s fine too.

"It really got to me that he was so actively involved in getting me sacked, whilst my ex-partner and the mother of my daughter had passed away shortly before. He didn’t even offer his condolences. That wasn’t exactly the done thing.”

Asked for his response to the story by Bild, Marko simply said: "The book is a collection of untruths, which I don't want to discuss in detail."

The new Red Bull almost unrecognisable

The departures of Horner and Marko (who himself left at the end of 2025) from Red Bull were part of a massive talent drain which has seen almost all of the key figures from their glory years depart.

Adrian Newey, Rob Marshall and Jonathan Wheatley are also no longer with the team, while Max Verstappen's long-time race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase is due to join McLaren not later than 2028.

The signs though are promising that the good times are about to return under Horner's replacement Laurent Mekies, with Verstappen winning back-to-back races in Bahrain (held in Malaysia) and Singapore.

The Dutchman has also ended speculation about his future by signing a new contraction extension through 2030.

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