Former Red Bull Racing CEO and team principal Christian Horner argued that Formula 1 should let fans sit on their favourite team's pitwall virtually and hear how strategy calls are made.
Horner has spent the past 15 months watching grands prix as a fan for the first time in his career, after leaving Red Bull in July 2025.
Speaking at the Autosport Business Exchange in New York on Wednesday, the Briton said the gap between what the pitwall knows and what TV viewers see had surprised him.
Autosport Business Exchange returned to New York City for its second edition, bringing together senior leaders from across motorsport, business and brands at the Manhattan Motorcars showroom to examine racing's growth in AmericaChristian Horner made his first U.S. appearance at the event since leaving Oracle Red Bull RacingOther panellists included seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson, former chairman and CEO of Formula 1 Chase Carey, General Motors' Mark Reuss, Penske's Jonathan Gibson and NASCAR's Tim Clark"But for me, it was also a different perspective. As a fan, as a spectator, suddenly watching races with commentators that I hadn't heard for 25 years and suddenly feeling... Going from that sort of cocoon on the pitwall with all that information and knowledge and strategies and competitor analysis and so on, suddenly you've just got the screen with the commentators explaining what's going on and different graphics," he said.
"It felt like there's so much more that they could lift the lid on. The teams fight against it because they don't want to give the IP away and a competitive advantage. But just looking at how viewers consume now and their hunger and eagerness for data and information, going from the experience that I had from sitting on the pitwall to suddenly being a viewer, it's amazing just how much more is available in terms of competitor analysis and strategy and how races are shaping up, and the communication.
Red Bull Racing team members on the pit wall
Photo by: Anni Graf - Formula 1 via Getty Images
"Obviously, that's going on on the pitwall and so on. So I really feel that that's an area that could be further exploited to get the viewer an even better experience."
When asked how that could be done for fans, Horner added: "Maybe make it interactive. Why not sit on the pitwall, virtually, of your favourite team, understand how they're getting to the decisions that they are, the discussions that they're having.
"Now, as a team, I would have argued against that because you don't want to be giving that information away. But, at the end of the day, sport is entertainment and there's so much competition now that Formula 1 has got itself into this incredible place where, certainly through the Netflix series, we've got this whole new generation and variants of fans.
"It's got to keep evolving. It can't stagnate and it's in such a great spot. It can't stand still, which I'm sure it's not going to, but you've got to keep evolving."