Helmut Marko did not need many words to settle his position on Christian Horner’s forthcoming memoir.
“That’s a collection of untruths, I don’t want to address them at all,” the 83-year-old Red Bull consultant told f1-insider.com.
To the German newspaper Bild, he used almost the same line.
“The book is a collection of untruths, which I do not want to discuss in detail.”
Read also: From bitter enemies to allies: How Barcelona and PSG ended years of hostility
The rebuttal lands two days before Horner’s book, Drive, hits shelves on 22 October, and it is the only comment Marko has offered on a run of excerpts in which the former Red Bull team principal paints him as a man the team learned to work around.
Horner: ‘Insider information as currency’
In the memoir, Horner describes Marko as a “complicated person” who leaked sensitive details to favoured outlets.
“From his position, Helmut treated insider information as currency, and he loved to spend it wildly, often without care,” Horner writes in Drive.
He goes further on the leaks themselves.
Read also: A 121-year record falls in Como: Seixas wins Il Lombardia at 20
“This was a direct threat to our intellectual property, and a journalist only had to wave their microphone in front of Helmut for the floodgates to open.”
The result, according to Horner, was that senior staff began filtering what was said when Marko was in the room.
“Soon enough, we became very selective about the type of information that was discussed in his company.”
The Coulthard retirement, cut off at a urinal
Horner reserves one of the sharpest passages for the way David Coulthard’s 2008 retirement announcement unravelled. The plan had been for Coulthard to reveal his decision at his home race at Silverstone. According to the memoir, Marko instead approached the Scot at a urinal and told him that Sebastian Vettel was taking his seat.
Read also: Taylor Swift reacts to fan filming her at Chiefs game before security intervenes
Coulthard found Horner shortly afterwards.
“I think I’ve just been retired in a toilet,” he is quoted as saying.
Horner’s verdict is unsparing.
“Typically, Helmut had come in like a wrecking ball and crushed a delicate process.”
A wider list of grievances
In an interview with Bild am Sonntag tied to the book’s release, Horner went further still, accusing Marko of working to have him removed from Red Bull and of failing to send condolences after the death of his former partner. He also claimed Fernando Alonso had wanted to join the team alongside Max Verstappen for 2025, but that Marko blocked the move.
Horner was removed as Red Bull team principal in July 2025 after two decades in charge, with Laurent Mekies taking over as CEO and team boss. Marko, who has outlasted every leadership shake-up since the team’s debut in 2005, remains in his role as senior adviser to the drivers.
Drive is published by Transworld on 22 October, three days before cars take to the track for the United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas.
Read also: Real Madrid lead on penalties, but Barcelona dominate another key refereeing statistic
