Helmut Marko has accused Christian Horner of poor style for releasing his autobiography Drive on 22 October, the fourth anniversary of Dietrich Mateschitz’s dying.
The previous Purple Bull advisor branded the timing “a humiliation” and dismissed the guide’s contents as a “low-calibre” assortment of untruths, although he declined to have interaction with its particular allegations.
Horner’s memoir, revealed at present, has reopened one among Method 1’s bitterest inner feuds.
In it, the previous Purple Bull principal accuses Marko of leaking delicate mental and operational particulars to the press, claiming Adrian Newey grew so pissed off by the disclosures that senior employees started withholding data from Marko in conferences.
Horner additionally recounts the second of his personal dismissal in 2025, alleging Marko stood alongside Oliver Mintzlaff and repeated the company line “it is in regards to the can” when explaining the choice.
‘Low-calibre’ claims
Chatting with Krone, Marko refused to choose by way of the guide level by level: “That is a group of untruths of such a low calibre that I will not handle them.”
He did, nevertheless, need to right one particular declare.
“I solely need to right one declare: that I did certainly provide my condolences after the dying of his ex-partner Beverly,” he stated while — in accordance with Krone — displaying the corresponding message on his cellphone.
Horner had written in Drive that Marko by no means reached out after Beverly’s passing final 12 months, throughout what he described as an already painful interval, as Marko labored to have him faraway from Purple Bull. Horner referred to as the shortage of contact “not very elegant” on the time.
The rift between the pair traces again to the facility wrestle that adopted Mateschitz’s dying in October 2022, which cut up the group between Horner’s camp, backed by majority shareholder Chalerm Yoovidhya, and Marko’s Austrian faction.
Horner has since described all contact with Marko as having gone silent since his ultimate day on the manufacturing unit, insisting their parting handshake was the final phrase exchanged between them.
Marko added: “And the truth that the guide is being revealed on the very day Dietrich Mateschitz died is a humiliation.”
