Marko fires back at Horner autobiography claim: 'I had to beat him in Barcelona'

Helmut Marko has publicly dismissed a key claim in Christian Horner’s forthcoming autobiography Drive, due for release on 22 October, flatly denying that he ever opposed signing Max Verstappen and turning the accusation back on the former Red Bull team principal.

Horner’s book alleges that Marko did not want a young Verstappen in the Red Bull programme, and that it took intervention from Max’s father, Jos Verstappen, to push the deal through. Marko, speaking to Austrian outlet oe24, rejected that version of events entirely. “I’m ignoring it as much as possible,” he said, before pointing to former Formula 1 driver Ralf Schumacher, who had already gone on the record to challenge Horner’s account. “Ralf Schumacher handled it very well.”

Schumacher described Horner’s telling as “an absolute lie”, recounting that it was Marko who first approached Verstappen when the Dutchman was just 11 and a half years old. According to Schumacher, it was Jos Verstappen who pumped the brakes at that stage, telling Marko the timing was too early — a rebuff that briefly cooled the relationship.

Marko confirmed that version, framing the delay as circumstantial rather than a sign of reluctance on his part. “It worked out well the way it did. Max was successful in karting back then, and we had no idea about that. Later in Formula 3, we would have grown closer again, and that’s how this unprecedented success story came about,” he said.

Marko then delivered his sharpest counter-punch, claiming that it was actually Horner who resisted Verstappen’s historic mid-season promotion to the senior Red Bull seat in 2016. “I brought Max into Formula 1 and had to beat Horner in his first race for Red Bull in Barcelona,” Marko said — a reference to Verstappen’s debut victory for the team at the Spanish Grand Prix, which came just days after he was elevated from Toro Rosso.

The dispute is the latest flashpoint in a long-running and well-documented tension between the two men. Their rivalry intensified in the power struggle that followed the death of Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz, a conflict that ultimately ended with Horner’s departure from the Milton Keynes outfit in 2025. With Drive still weeks from shelves, further claims from the book appear likely to keep that feud firmly in the public eye.