Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes Liberty Media have found Formula 1 to be much harder to run than expected.
Since completing its takeover in early 2017, the American corporation has looked to revolutionise the sport in a number of areas and has made progress in taking advantage of opportunities previously missed under the old leadership.
However, their openness with teams and promoters has led to talks dragging regarding a new Concorde Agreement for 2021 and FOPA, the F1 promoters association, issuing a rare public critique of Liberty’s leadership.
“Well, you would have never heard a promoter talk out about Bernie [Ecclestone] because they wouldn’t have had a Grand Prix the following year,” Horner said in response to ESPN. “He had a different way of doing business.
“The problem is, the way Liberty are trying to operate in a democratic way. The promoters are getting far more from Liberty than they ever got previously in terms of freedom and ability to do things there would be stronger restrictions on.
“The more you give, the more instinctively they want,” he claimed. “Bernie ran a really tight and hard ship, it was a dictatorship in that if you didn’t like it, you wouldn’t have a race the following year. It’s just a different way of operating.”
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That, however, is just one example Horner points to of Liberty underestimating the complex nature of F1, who then pointed at other things current CEO Chase Carey likely didn’t expect.
“I think Liberty finds frustrating is a lot of this business is conducted through the media, that’s something they’re not used to with American sport,” he added.
“The learning curve they’ve had is that F1 has a different appeal in different markets. It’s still one of the biggest sports in the world and you can’t necessarily just apply US sports approach to something that’s already 60, 70 years old as a global world championship.”
It is that which led the Red Bull boss to his eventual conclusion and also explain what he sees as the main issue still to be resolved by Liberty.
“I think they thought there was some very low hanging fruit there and it’s turned out a lot harder than they perhaps thought,” Horner stated. “But they remain determined and convinced that the potential of the sport to take it to the next level is there.
“We’re seeing initiatives like eSports coming in that are all positives, but it’s the content of what the sport is that needs the focus at the moment. You can window-dress and promote a movie as much as you like but if the movie hasn’t got substance and isn’t an exciting movie, people won’t watch it.
“I think it’s the content of what is Formula 1 that needs addressing for 2021 onwards.”