I said the Mad Dog would go down biting, and go down biting he has. He has left the Red Bull building—whether he walked out, was removed, or was politely told to leave. Whichever way you look at it, the Mad Dog was always going to mark his territory as a signal that he is gone, but that his presence can still be felt.

The Mad Dog doesn’t seem too eager to become an ordinary citizen, Dr. Helmut Marko, anytime soon. Predictably, he has plenty of interview requests to fulfil. And in true Mad Dog Marko fashion, he has aimed his fangs at Christian Horner, claiming that Verstappen would have won the 2025 drivers’ title had Horner been removed sooner.

It’s a remarkable statement, considering that the Mad Dog and Horner were the architects Red Bull put in charge of building the F1 squad 20 years ago. In an interview, the Mad Dog revealed that Horner tried to exploit the power vacuum left by the death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz to become a key influential figure within the Red Bull organisation.

In other words, Horner wanted more power. The story echoes the ancient Greek fable of the Sword of Damocles: Damocles realized that holding great power was ultimately precarious, yet Horner stood beneath the sword and watched it fall. Mad Dog Marko is a brutally honest individual, has no time for fools and can spot one a mile away, and what he reveals in the interview is likely 100% accurate.

It’s fair to say that Horner comes across as a slippery and slimy individual, as revealed by the Mad Dog. Ultimately, Horner lost a battle he was never likely to win.

“Together with Didi [the late Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz], I founded Red Bull Racing in 2005. 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.”

“I remember a party [2022], ahead of the Austrian Grand Prix, Didi was there but not in good health. 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’s Thai 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.”

“Those final years with Horner were not pleasant. 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 [Horrner’s faction].“

“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.”

“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. 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.“

“We had to act [Horner’s dismissal] because performance on track was falling behind. 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.”