Christian Horner‘s former Red Bull colleagues have called him out for ‘lying’ and ‘causing spicy tension’.
Earlier on Thursday, it was uncovered that Horner, 52, was paid a staggering £67million in severance after being sacked by Red Bull following a texting scandal.
The Daily Mail’s Richard Eden revealed that documents filed this week at Companies House from Red Bull Racing disclose that Horner, 52, banked £33.5m. The husband of former Spice Girl Geri Halliwell was then paid an extra £33.5m from other Red Bull accounts.
The team’s superstar driver Max Verstappen has opened up about what life was like in the team under ex-team principal Horner, while the cloud of scandal was hanging over them.
He said: ‘To be honest, I like to see that people get on. It is not nice when you constantly have tension between people.
‘Of course, from the outside, people like it, but honestly between the teams, it is better when you have just a friendly relationship.
Max Verstappen said their was ‘tension’ in Red Bull when Christian Horner was in charge
The team principal was axed after a texting scandal, though two investigations cleared him of impropriety
‘It is not as spicy, but I obviously quite like how things are going at the moment, with everyone’s behaviour, let’s put it like that.
‘It is less stressful. We are all leading a stressful life and, when you can take a bit of stress out of it at times, it is good.’
There were more scathing comments from Helmut Marko, who was a colleague in his role as Red Bull adviser. Horner, in his upcoming autobiography ‘Drive’, claims Marko did not want Verstappen in the team.
Marko, 83, rubbished that allegation by referring to former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher assessment that Horner’s version of events was an ‘absolute lie’.
‘I’m ignoring it as much as possible. Ralf Schumacher handled it very well,’ Marko told Austrian outlet OE24.
On an episode of the Backstage Boxengasse podcast, Schumacher said: ‘Marko approached Max when he was just 11-and-a-half years old. At the time, Jos said it was still too early for him. ‘The doctor, as you know him, was a bit miffed and said: “Okay, if you don’t want to, then so be it.”‘
And Marko added: ‘I brought Max into Formula 1 and had to stand my ground against Horner at his first race for Red Bull in Barcelona. He thought Max was too young, too inexperienced.’
Horner had been the longest reigning team principal in the sport, steering Red Bull for 20 years and winning eight drivers’ championships and six constructors’ titles, but was sacked in July 2025, a year after the scandal that engulfed him over texts he apparently sent to a female employee.
Horner claims Helmut Marko (right) did not want Max Verstappen at Red Bull, which the Austrian vehemently denies
The settlement payment is disclosed in the small print of Red Bull Racing’s latest accounts for last year and is reported as ‘compensation for loss of office’ in the directors’ remuneration section.
Horner has always denied the claims and was twice cleared of any impropriety in internal investigations at Red Bull, despite a tranche of supposedly intimate text exchanges between the pair being made public in an explosive email sent to F1 figures before the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.
His wife Geri stood by him throughout the scandal. They live together in a £9.2m mansion near the Oxfordshire border with Northamptonshire.
Last month, it was revealed that the woman who accused him of coercive behaviour had been mysteriously released from her latest role in motor racing.
A source told Daily Mail Sport that she was informed her services were no longer required moments before her scheduled flight to Budapest, a race won by McLaren’s British world champion Lando Norris.
Her then employers, who can also not be named, said: ‘We do not comment on personnel matters.’
It is understood her latest position was terminated after her new boss, with whom she worked closely, lost confidence in her ‘for a lack of discretion’.
The saga that unfolded surrounding Horner’s supposedly coercive behaviour was one of the biggest to hit F1 in recent years.
Seventy-nine screenshots of WhatsApp chats between Horner and the female then colleague were leaked in an explosive email sent to F1 figures ahead of the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix.
The file allegedly containing texts and images was leaked to almost 200 people involved in the sport, including owners Liberty Media, team principals and the media.
Horner had been at the top of Red Bull since its inception in 2005, and led them in two phases to world championship success through Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen.
There have been growing rumours of the 52-year-old potentially returning to the grid. He recently told The Times that Ferrari are his ‘dream’ team to join and the only one he would consider signing up for without an equity stake.
‘Would I consider Ferrari? I mean, Ferrari is the biggest brand in Formula 1. It’s the dream. And arguably it’s the sleeping giant of Formula 1,’ he said.
‘I’ve been a hired hand. I did 21 years sitting on the pit wall. I don’t need to go back to that.
‘At this stage in my life, there’s only one team for which I would accept non-participation in ownership [Ferrari].’
A week ago Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, backed his beleaguered team principal Fred Vasseur as the ‘right guy’ to lead Ferrari amid speculation that Horner might take over.
Hamilton did not elaborate on what changes he wanted to see but his comments were hardly an overwhelming vote of confidence in the organisation he joined last season in search of his eighth world title.
But Horner’s hopes of a return took a blow when Ferrari publicly backed current team principal Fred Vasseur.
Ferrari’s chief communications officer Maria Conti led the conversation, saying to a group of some 15 reporters: ‘Ferrari want to end speculation over the leadership of the team.
Horner oversaw eight drivers’ titles at Red Bull, including four in a row with Max Verstappen
‘I am officially saying that Ferrari has made its choices and has full confidence in Fred Vasseur and his team. Nothing has changed. So that’s it.’
It remains the case that Vasseur has failed to deliver the results chairman John Elkann would have wished for, never getting close to a world championship despite paying Lewis Hamilton £80million-a-year to race for them.
Vasseur is also widely condemned within the organisation for failing to learn more than a few words of Italian, instead speaking in English, or his native French, since taking over as Scuderia boss in 2023.
As Daily Mail Sport revealed in September, the 58-year-old is also believed to have health problems – relating to his heart and the stress of the job. Furthermore, his elevation to such a senior status in the sport remains scarcely believable given his limp years as Alfa Romeo boss, where he won exactly nothing. They were at the back of the field year after year.
