Ted Kravitz insists that he hasn’t heard anything from inside the F1 paddock about the alleged power struggle between Red Bull’s Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.
Rumours began last week when Brazil’s Globo reported “turmoil” and “tension” at Red Bull, saying that team principal Horner wanted to get rid of consultant Marko.
Horner, Marko and Max Verstappen denied the reports during last weekend’s F1 United States Grand Prix.
Sky’s Kravitz reported from on the ground in Texas: “Do you want to know about a story that you might have read about Helmut Marko and a supposed row with Christian Horner?
“Now, we never knew. We didn’t know. I haven’t heard this in the waters, in the paddock jungle drums, in the paddock rumour mill.
“We’ve seen no evidence of any row between Horner and Marko.
“They are tight buddies! They still have lunch every day together.
“When Marko was interviewed by an Austrian newspaper he was asked about a rumoured rift with Horner, which I didn’t know was a thing!
“He said: ‘I have a contract with Red Bull until the end of next year. When, and how, I stop? I decide. Not, for example, Mr. Horner’.
“How is he exposing a massive rift, which looks like it isn’t a rift, with Horner? It’s all rather baffling.
“I don’t get it. Because they look like bezzie mates!
“Max Verstappen was asked about this and said that he’s very close to both: ‘You don’t break up a winning team’.
“So, why was he asked? And why did he give a slightly tetchy answer? I just don’t get it…
“If it turns that our Marko leaves his post at the end of this year, rather than at the end of next year when his contract runs out, then you’ll know that what’s happening at the moment is ‘something’.
“And, if he doesn’t, then it wasn’t! That’s probably the easiest way to explain!
“The crucial thing is that Verstappen, who is very close with Marko, was saying ‘I don’t want him to leave, he was instrumental in the making of me, he’s a good lad to have around!’
“There is the back-story.”
Horner denied the rumours, telling Mirror Sport: “Without Helmut, I wouldn’t be in the position that I am today.
“Like with the young drivers that he has given an opportunity, he also gave me that opportunity.”
Verstappen insisted: “I saw that from the outside people are trying to basically talk some BS because I think the mood in the team is very good.”
Marko told Sky: “We’ve known each other for 27 years.
“We built this up together. The division of labour looks like this: Christian does the operational stuff, I’m more into the strategy.
“That’s good. It’s worked so far and we’ll see that it works in the future too.”
Keyword: Word on the street revealed from F1 paddock about Christian Horner vs Helmut Marko bust-up rumour