Speaking to Dutch publication De Limburger, the 82-year-old made the comments following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, which secured Lando Norris’ title and marked the end of Marko’s long tenure at Red Bull.
Marko confirmed his immediate departure from Red Bull, months after Horner was dismissed as team principal, despite still holding an active contract.
He argued the move became unavoidable once on-track performance began to slip.
“We had to act because performance on track was falling behind,” he said.
“And if we had done it earlier, we would have got things back on track sooner and Max Verstappen would have been world champion this year.
“I am absolutely convinced of that.”
Verstappen, under Laurent Mekies, mounted a late-season recovery to finish just two points behind Norris, but Marko said it came too late to influence the championship outcome.
Reflecting on Horner’s rise within Red Bull, Marko rejected the idea of a personal feud, instead pointing to a shift in internal control following the death of company founder Dietrich Mateschitz in 2022.
“Together with Didi [Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz], I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005,” he explained.
“We appointed Horner as team principal, and I was there as a supervisor. In principle, the power was always in Austria – we made the decisions.”
Marko claimed that dynamic changed as Mateschitz’s health declined.
“I remember a party earlier that year, ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Didi was there but not in good health,” he said.
“Christian came up to me and said ‘he won’t make it to the end of the year’. From that moment on, Christian began cozying up to Chalerm Yoovidhya [Red Bull co-owner].
“When Didi passed away later that year, Christian did everything he could to take control of the company with Yoovidhya’s support. On behalf of ‘Austria’, I did everything possible to prevent that.”
Although Horner was eventually removed, Marko described the final years working under him as deeply damaging.
“But those final years with Horner were not pleasant,” he explained.
“Dirty games were being played. Do you remember when it was claimed that I said Mexicans were less focused than Dutch or German people during Sergio Perez’s time? That was fabricated – possibly by them [Horner’s camp].”
He also dismissed claims from 2024 that he had undermined Red Bull’s engine programme.
“The same goes for the claim that in 2024 I spread the story that our engine development was behind schedule and that we would therefore lose Ford as a partner,” he added.
“I never said that, but Horner wanted to use it to have me suspended. Because of Max’s support in Jeddah, that didn’t happen.”
Marko said Horner eventually lost the support of Red Bull’s Thai shareholder.
“More and more often, we were able to prove that Horner lied about all sorts of things. Once Chalerm realised that too, he changed his mind.”
In the same De Limburger interview, Marko also rejected Red Bull’s official explanation for his own departure, describing the team’s statement as misleading.
“I don’t want to go into too much detail, but I didn’t read that press release full of nonsense,” he said.
“Let’s just say that a lot has changed at the team in a short period of time. You think you know people well, but in the end that turns out not to be the case… I really won’t say more.”
Marko explained that his decision to step away crystallised late in the season, beginning around the Qatar Grand Prix and finalised ahead of the Abu Dhabi finale.
“I hadn’t been thinking about it myself for that long either. The idea of stopping started to take shape for me in Qatar,” he said.
“I’m not much of a doubter; I’m quite decisive. On the Thursday before the final race in Abu Dhabi, I decided for myself that this would be my last weekend.”
He added that Verstappen winning a fifth consecutive title would not have changed his decision.
“That fifth title wouldn’t have changed anything anyway,” he added.
“It was my ultimate dream to win five in a row with Verstappen, the best driver we’ve ever had. But it wasn’t meant to be, even though I still had good hopes before the final race.”
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