Marko succeeded in keeping Horner at Red Bull
A little more and Christian Horner, one of the great figures of Red Bull, was about to leave. The brand's top boss, Helmut Marko, had to open his wallet so that the British team principal wouldn't go to Ferrari.
Ferrari is not indifferent to Christian Horner’s work when he arrived in F1 in 2005. Since that year, Red Bull has been approaching 100 victories and will surely clinch a 7th driver’s world championship title.
The Scuderia has long coveted the signature of Adrian Newey. However, he seems determined not to leave the Red Bull ship. Ferrari came close to getting Horner during the race in Montreal last June.
Although Ferrari started the year 2022 with a car capable of competing for victory, strategic errors and reliability issues ruined their chances of fighting for the title and eventually led to Mattia Binotto being shown the door. His dismissal benefited Fredéric Vasseur, the successor to the Italian.
Marko had to take out the tickets.
However, the story could have been completely different: Marko tells that a Horner-Red Bull agreement was close to being finalized.
« It took me the whole night to convince Horner to stay at Red Bull, which cost us millions more, explained Marko.
If Horner ultimately stayed and Newey recently signed a new long-term contract with Red Bull Powertrain, other key members will leave the Austrian structure.
Dan Fallows has been appointed as the Technical Director of Aston Martin after serving as the Head of Aerodynamics at Red Bull Racing. The Head of Engineering, Rob Marshall, has been recruited by McLaren, where he will begin working starting from 2024.
