By alley - Dec 29, 2016, 1:27 PM ET

F1: More competitive Red Bull good for the sport - Horner

2017 will be a good season for Formula 1 if Red Bull manages to close the gap to Mercedes, according to its team principal Christian Horner.

Mercedes has dominated F1 since the introduction of the current V6 power units, with the team winning 51 out of 59 races since the start of 2014. Red Bull was the only team other than Mercedes to win a race last season, with Max Verstappen taking advantage when Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton collided in the Spanish Grand Prix, and Hamilton's retirement when leading comfortably in Malaysia handing victory to Daniel Ricciardo.

While new aerodynamic regulations have been hailed as an opportunity for Red Bull to challenge for the championship next year, Horner is more cautious and simply wants to be close enough to be a threat to Mercedes.

"We've got closer in the second half of this year and managed to pick at the tail of Mercedes now and again. If we can get to a point where they're not dominating every grand prix weekend, I think that's only healthy for Formula 1. I'm pretty confident in the quality of drivers that we've got, that if we give them a car capable of getting among it they will do exactly that.

"I think just for Formula 1 and for fans of the sport, it will be great not to have a known winner on a Sunday afternoon bar reliability issues, so hopefully we can help to achieve that."

With the 2017 cars currently in development, Horner is excited by the aesthetics of the new designs but admits he is wary of getting carried away with any progress made in terms of performance.

"It looks great. Obviously we were involved very heavily – it was through the Strategy Group that I tabled the philosophy for this direction. It's great that it has been adopted and I think the cars will look good as a result.

"They're difficult things, [performance] targets, because you don't know what anybody else is doing. So whatever you're doing, you try to do it better."