Horner has new Red Bull deal ’until 2017’ - Marko

Red Bull’s Dr Helmut Marko has hit back at rumours team boss Christian Horner could be defecting to Ferrari.

It recently emerged that Briton Horner, the 39-year-old who has sat at the helm of the Milton Keynes based team as Sebastian Vettel raced to triple consecutive titles, visited Maranello.

Now, it subsequently became clear that Horner was not the only F1 figure at Ferrari’s headquarters, as Bernie Ecclestone, Martin Whitmarsh and Niki Lauda met to discuss the Concorde Agreement with Luca di Montezemolo.

But that didn’t silence every rumour about Horner’s future.

Marko, however - Red Bull team owner Dietrich Mateschitz’s right hand man on F1 matters - insists Horner is firmly under contract.

He told Sport Bild: "How could Christian be negotiating in Maranello if we’ve just extended his contract until 2017?"

That is bad news for Ferrari - and every other team - for another reason, given that Horner and F1’s lauded designer Adrian Newey traditionally renew their contracts in unison.