Horner urges broadcasters to support social media push

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Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says he hopes TV broadcasters won't try and clamp down on teams and drivers producing content for social media.

Previously, Formula One under Bernie Ecclestone banned teams from posting videos filmed in the pit lane on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

That was because broadcasters had paid hundreds of millions of dollars for exclusive coverage of the sport and didn't want their investment undermined. However new owners Liberty eased the social media ban this week for pre-season testing in Spain.

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Horner pointed out that teams are able to produce unique content that would never be available to mainstream media. He added that the social media content would also benefit the broadcasters.

"It's that behind the scenes stuff that the fans crave, and it's been great to get that content out there," Horner told Motorsport.com this week.

"At the end of the day, it's an advertisement for Formula One," he said. "We've certainly put out a lot of content [this week].

"The way people watch content these days is very, very different. You've only got to go on a train and see how everybody is looking at their phone.

"The television broadcaster would never get that access to what we're showing," he added. "They need to ultimately complement each other

"We're not going to film anything on track – that's not within our remit," he said, insisting that his aim was "to personalise the drivers, give an insight into some of the bits behind the scenes."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.