Red Bull's Helmut Marko shares major update about the internal political battle with Christian Horner

Red Bull's advisor Helmut Marko has revealed that he and team principal Christian Horner have called a truce inside the team after what happened early in the season. The start of the season was as dramatic as it could get for the team.

While on-track it was clear that Red Bull had a potent car that could dominate just like it had done in 2023, off-track was a completely different story. It all started with the news coming out that Christian Horner was facing an internal investigation for misconduct with a fellow employee. This investigation took an unexpected turn when a political battle ensued between Horner and a surprise opposition.

With the opposition being Helmut Marko and Jos Verstappen, everything came out in the open as the team was split into two factions. After senior management, including Red Bull GmbH, got involved, there was a sense of uneasy tranquility within the team.

All of this was fine as long as Red Bull dominated on the track and Max Verstappen continued to rack up wins. That has not been the case in the last three races, and it has completely shaken things up. The last three races have had three different winners, with Red Bull winning only one.

In conversation with Krone.at, Helmut Marko was questioned about his relationship with Christian Horner, to which the Austrian said that the two parties had called for a truce as they look to focus on winning the championship. He said:

"We have made a truce. We will combine all our forces. Even if we are no longer superior, we want to win. But we definitely want to get the maximum out of it and look towards the world championship title."

Red Bull losing dominance only logical

The Austrian also admitted that Red Bull is not the most dominant car on the grid anymore. Marko did, however, feel this was just a consequence of the kind of regulations in place. They are very prescriptive in nature which makes it hard to innovate and break new ground in terms of car development.

On this, Marko said:

"We have lost the dominance of the first three races, the competition has caught up in the third year of the current regulations, copied some things and even improved them. There is not much room for innovation anymore. This is simply a logical development, nothing defamatory."

The Austrian team has seen its lead in the constructors championship dwindle in the last three races. In all of them, the team has had Sergio Perez as a liability, a driver who just extended his contract with the team by another two years.

The team is certainly on the backfoot and facing intense pressure from Ferrari and McLaren. The next few races will reveal the direction the momentum could take.