Power Politics Against Christian Horner Suspected Behind Helmut Marko’s Threat of Max Verstappen Exit

Speculations about a power struggle at Red Bull Racing began shortly after the company’s owner, Dietrich Mateschitz, passed away in October 2022. Many reports emerged that after his passing, the team got divided into two factions—the Thai shareholders supporting Christian Horner and the Austrian group backing Helmut Marko.

The first major signs of these power politics arose last year when Horner was facing serious allegations of “inappropriate behavior” towards a female employee. Soon after, reports emerged that it was Marko who was responsible for compromising Horner by allegedly leaking the chats.

Moreover, Max Verstappen’s father Jos also made headlines after he publicly called for Horner’s ouster when Red Bull GmbH were conducting an internal investigation on the Briton. The former F1 driver said that it would be “bad” for Red Bull’s image if they allowed Horner to stay as team principal, considering what he was accused of.

However, with the independent barrister hired by Red Bull GmbH clearing Horner of any wrongdoing, it seemed that all the tensions at Milton Keynes had eased off. That was until they had their horror show in Bahrain last weekend, with the four-time world champion managing a meagre P6 finish and his teammate Yuki Tsunoda finishing ninth.

This resulted in the alarm bells ringing at Red Bull, as they reportedly held an emergency meeting to discuss their way forward. What perhaps made the situation worse for Red Bull is that Marko—who Horner once himself labeled as a “PR nightmare”—shockingly claimed that the team is in serious danger of losing Verstappen.

| Red Bull are understood to have held an emergency meeting after yesterday’s Bahrain GP.

All of the team’s senior personnel were in attendance. pic.twitter.com/g7hNrhDy4S

— formularacers (@formularacers_) April 14, 2025

ESPN’s Laurence Edmonson, though, believes that this is simply a ploy Marko is using to swing the power dynamics in his favor by leveraging his close bond with the Dutchman. The ESPN journalist believes that the 81-year-old is suggesting the team that if Horner is unable to help Red Bull improve the performance of the car, they may lose Verstappen.

“I think Marko has always been very closely aligned with Max Verstappen, and so everything that he says you have to kind of take very seriously when he’s talking about Max and concerns of losing him,” Edmonson explained on the Unlapped podcast.

While Marko brought up the concern that Verstappen may leave Red Bull if the team’s performance does not improve, the reigning world champion has never done so himself. In fact, even during the Saudi Arabian GP press conference, he explained how he is happy at Milton Keynes and rubbished all the rumors that claimed he is considering leaving.

Crofty: ️ “So he’s [Marko] getting the wrong end of the stick? You’re not thinking of leaving Red Bull?

Verstappen: ️ “No, I think [you] just focus on commentating, I’ll focus on driving and then you don’t need to think about any other scenarios.” pic.twitter.com/8Aseevjpe6

— The Race (@wearetherace) April 17, 2025

For Verstappen, he simply wants Red Bull to work on the issues of poor handling that are plaguing their performance this season. That’s the concern he has repeatedly echoed whenever he has appeared in front of the media since the second half of last season.

ESPN’s Nate Saunders then pointed out how these power politics began after Mateschitz’s passing away. Saunders believes that Marko is closer to the Austrians (Mateschitz’s family), while Horner has always been close to the Yoovidhya family, who own the majority stake in Red Bull GmbH.

Saunders added that even though Marko’s faction do not own the majority of the stake in Red Bull, the 81-year-old still holds a huge bargaining chip, and that is Verstappen’s support, who also made his loyalty abundantly clear to the Austrian.

Soon after reports emerged last year that Marko could leave Red Bull because of allegedly compromising Horner, Verstappen claimed that he too will leave if that happens. With Max being the best driver on the current grid, this just goes to show how powerful Marko is, simply because of his close bond with the 27-year-old.