Red Bull's Christian Horner expects F1 to evolve under Liberty Media

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is hopeful grand prix weekends will evolve under Formula 1's new owners Liberty Media - but doesn't want Sunday's main event "diluted".

Liberty completed their takeover of the sport in January, with Bernie Ecclestone stepping down from his long-held chief executive role.

New CEO Chase Carey has said he wants to take F1 to a "whole new level" and Horner is optimistic about what the future holds.

"I think things will evolve," Horner told Sky F1. "A football match has two halves, two goals and 22 players and I think the DNA of a grand prix is a race on a Sunday and qualifying on Saturday!

"But it's the content that you have during that time. Everybody wants better racing, the drivers to be the heroes, the sport to be more accessible and the fans to have more engagement. They're all key things which the guys from Liberty are pushing hard on and some of the ideas going on behind the scenes sound exciting."

Improving the racing spectacle has long been on F1's agenda and Ecclestone had proposed ideas such as reverse grids or a time ballast system in order to mix up the field and hopefully encourage more wheel-to-wheel racing.

Ross Brawn, F1's new managing director, told Sky F1 during winter testing that he was wary of ripping up the current format but was open to the idea of "non-championship" to test new ideas.

Horner believes the main focus must be on making Sunday's current format as exciting as possible while also potentially testing the drivers in other disciplines.

"I hate the idea of an extra race on a weekend. A grand prix is the big event on a Sunday afternoon and anything gimmicky around that is WWF. Let's create great content and great racing on a Sunday afternoon and get the drivers racing on a Sunday afternoon and let them be the heroes and then we don't need gimmicks like reverse grids," Horner said.

Why haven't they fought before?

Hamilton and Vettel have won six of the last seven titles. But 2017 could be their first title duel

"I'd love to see the drivers more active over a weekend. Years ago there was the Procar Series where you'd see them driving in a different discipline. Why not get them involved in something like that. The sessions used to be longer, the drivers used to be more active but they have a lot of time on their hands now."

Brawn has already spoken of his desire to make F1's revenue distribution more equal to help the sport's smaller teams and create a more level playing field.

Horner believes that can be achieved by bringing more revenue into the sport while also employing cost-cutting measures.

He said: "As long as we don't get less I'm more than happy for everyone else to get a chunk more. Inevitably there will be a negotiation. There needs to be a balancing of payments but if more revenue can be brought into the sport that shouldn't be an issue.

"A grand prix team will always spend 10 per cent more than what it has. That's the nature of the beast and the daily battle that every team is having up and down the pit lane.

"One of the bigger factors is cost control - the amount of cash that we are spending on parts of the cars that [spectators] don't understand and even some people in the team don't understand. It's simplifying those areas that I think can get a lot of cost out of F1 and these are the areas Ross Brawn knows better than anyone else to eradicate.

How to Sky F1

On the Go, On Demand, Online, and on the channel: You won't miss a thing

"If you look at the complexity of the front wing - the amount of packaging, machining parts, man hours into every single front wing is nuts, absolutely bananas. I think there are a lot of things that can be done to simplify the cars and dramatically reduce costs."

Sky customers can now upgrade to Sky Sports and get 12 months for just £18 per month. Upgrade now!