Marko: Red Bull paid 'millions' to thwart Ferrari's Horner bid

Red Bull had to pay "millions" to stop Ferrari signing Formula 1 Team Principal Christian Horner at the 2022 Canadian Grand Prix, Helmut Marko has revealed.

Ferrari have been long-time admirers of Horner, who has been in charge of Red Bull since they entered Grand Prix racing in 2005, guiding them to 99 race wins and 11 World Championship titles.

The Scuderia have also long coveted the signature of technical genius Adrian Newey to poach away two of the senior members of the Red Bull team, and came close to landing Horner at the Montreal race last June.

Ferrari's Horner bid

Although Ferrari started 2022 with a strong car, operational, strategic and reliability mistakes cost them a shot at the title over the summer, with then-boss Mattia Binotto eventually losing his job to Frederic Vasseur.

But Ferrari wanted Horner to replace Binotto, with a move being made in Canada.

"It took me a whole night to convince Horner to stay at Red Bull, it cost us millions more," Marko explained to Blick of the attempted move.

While Horner ultimately stayed and Newey recently signed a new long-term deal with the Milton Keynes squad, other key technical staff have or are going to leave Red Bull.

Dan Fallows was appointed as Aston Martin Technical Director while engineering chief Rob Marshall has been poached by McLaren, starting work in 2024.

Ferrari also tried to sign current Red Bull Technical Director Pierre Wache, but were rebuffed as teams try to sign Newey lieutenants if they can't get Newey himself.