Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko was proving a tough nut to crack on the Red Bull futures of team boss Christian Horner, design guru Adrian Newey and star driver Max Verstappen.
While on the track all seems well for Red Bull, who scored a comfortable one-two finish at the F1 2024 Bahrain season-opener, behind the scenes things are far from calm, with this spilling out in front of the public eye.
In the aftermath of Red Bull GmbH dismissing the Horner case following an internal investigation relating to his behaviour, all allegations denied by Horner, an anonymous email leaked what was claimed to be evidence behind the Horner investigation, before Verstappen’s father Jos publicly called for Horner’s exit.
That sparked speculation that a fresh shock twist could be looming in F1’s already wild latest ‘silly season’, in the form of Verstappen moving to Mercedes. A vacancy will come up at the team for 2025 once Lewis Hamilton moves to Ferrari.
And asked by OE24 whether there is any truth to the claim that Jos is already in talks with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff, Marko replied: “You won’t get any comment from me on that.”
F1-Insider.com recently reported that Verstappen has a clause in his Red Bull contract allowing him to leave the team if Marko does, but this suggestion was not getting much out of Marko either, other than affirming that a huge level of “trust” exists between he and the three-time World Champion.
“I’m sticking to my ‘No Comment!’ here as well,” Marko stressed. “The fact is that there is a great relationship of trust between Max and me.”
Next up was Horner’s future, as Marko was asked whether Horner can continue in the team principal role, considering the relationship with the Verstappen camp appears to have broken down.
“I won’t say anything about that until the case is finally closed,” said Marko, who after being reminded that the Red Bull investigation into Horner is now concluded, followed up with: “Okay, then I’ve expressed myself wrong. So let’s stick with ‘No Comment!'”
Recently, 10-time F1 grand prix winner and Marko’s friend Gerhard Berger made a bold prediction on Red Bull’s future, predicting to F1-Insider.com that Horner will remain with the team, while Marko, Newey and Verstappen all wave goodbye.
Even this theory, interestingly, did not trigger an outright no from Marko.
“It’s an interesting variation,” Marko assessed.
Red Bull will soon return to on-track action as the start of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix looms, Round 2 of 24 in the F1 2024 campaign.
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