F1: Helmut Marko spoke of Christian Horner’s departure from Red Bull

The Austrian team sports advisor worked 20 years alongside English and commanded the successes.

Helmut Marko arrived in Red Bull from the first day as sports advisor. His friendship with Dietrich Mateschitz, one of the owners of the company of energy drinks, was key to assume the position. In addition, the winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans of 1971 was in charge of the Talent Development Program of the Austrian team. In the last 20 years he worked with Christian Horner, who this week was dismissed from his position as director.

In the last time, the power dispute between Marko and Horner had been the relationship. Mateschitz’s death in October 2022 changed the internal panorama. The triumphs overlapped the grudge, which increased when the British was denounced by an employee for “inappropriate behavior.” This year, far from the times of absolute domain, conflicts emerged in Red Bull and, finally, Horner was fired.

Marko was very diplomatic when talking about the director’s departure: “Christian and I worked together with great success for more than 20 years, both in formula 1 and in formula 3000. I would like to sincerely thank Christian for it,” The Austrian said in a statement published by Red Bull.

“During this time, we were able to celebrate an incredible amount of outstanding achievements. We contributed to the development of two pilot champions and several winners of large awards. That has always been, and remains, the style of Red Bull. As for the current sports situation: there are still 12 races and we will continue fighting for the pilot championship as long as it is mathematically possible,” hill.