Marko responds to the 'nonsense' speculation from Horner.

      "That wasn’t my decision."

      Dr. Helmut Marko has criticized reports suggesting that he has lost influence at Red Bull. Recently, the prominent Formula 1 advisor for the energy drink brand was cited saying he had no involvement in the decision to re-sign Sergio Perez last year. "That wasn’t my decision," he allegedly stated. "I didn’t choose Perez; Christian (Horner) did."

      When asked about this by Austrian broadcaster ORF at Suzuka, Marko responded, "Absolute nonsense! Nobody even knows the journalist."

      This has been a challenging time for the once-dominant team, with a decline in performance accompanying notable staff exits and internal conflicts. McLaren CEO Zak Brown acknowledged his part in this situation. "Certainly, our aim is to be as fast as possible ourselves," he shared with TechStuff. "However, there's also a strategy to destabilize the competition. If you can unsettle a rival, it may slow them down while you improve your own pace."

      Red Bull’s recent turmoil has mainly revolved around driver issues, with both Perez and Liam Lawson removed for being significantly behind Max Verstappen. Verstappen secured pole position at Suzuka, whereas Lawson's replacement, Yuki Tsunoda, qualified P15, finishing behind Lawson. "Only Max can do that," Fernando Alonso remarked about Verstappen's impressive lap.

      Marko, on the other hand, stated that Tsunoda simply made errors during qualifying and should have advanced to Q3. "Yuki was only two tenths behind Max in practice," he noted. "We haven’t had that in a long time. It can now be understood why we swapped. We are completely satisfied," Marko added.

      Nonetheless, Verstappen pointed out that Red Bull still faces significant challenges. "I have already mentioned that our issue is not with the driver; it’s the car. The team decides who is in the car, and that’s perfectly fine, but we need to concentrate on the real problem, and that is the car."