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Despite Christian Horner’s comments, former F1 team manager Joan Villadelprat believes that Red Bull must part ways with Helmut Marko due to his treatment of drivers.

Reports have circulated that the 80-year-old could leave the team at the end of the season due to ‘power problems’ behind the scenes, but team principal Horner has shut down those claims and insisted such action is not a consideration.

But Villadelprat believes that a split is necessary though due to Marko’s ruthless treatment of drivers, with Sergio Perez the latest to feel the Austrian’s wrath.

Villadelprat told PlanetF1: “Take Helmut Marko away from the f**king team. Every time he opens his mouth, the only thing he’s doing is hammering. It’s an area that you don’t need to talk about because, if things don’t go well and things are tough for a driver, you don’t need somebody telling you that you’re useless.

“When you’re a manager and you have a lot of people working with you, there are various ways of working. You have some people that you need to be behind hammering them. That’s the way that you motivate them. But you have people that you don’t need to hammer. When they make a mistake, you pick up the pieces and put them back again. So help him to get back into the place.”