Four days before the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, Horner said his team still had plenty of ground to make up, however.
Briton now 18 wins away from Michael Schumacher's all-time record
Unlike the Australian GP, where the majority of drivers carried out only one pit-stop, of Sunday's second race of the season, at Sepang, Malaysia, will see at least two, says Raja Sen.
Force India boss Vijay Mallya says his partnership with the Formula 1 team's co-owner Subrata Roy stands strong despite the Sahara Group chief being in jail since March 2014.
Ferrari's Fernando Alonso gave a teasing hint about his Formula One future on Sunday by saying the decision would seem obvious once announced and he was unlikely to drive for a Mercedes-powered team.
Ferrari's new team principal Mattia Binotto said earlier in the year that Vettel, as the team's "champion", would be given priority over Leclerc in certain racing situations, though he later clarified the drivers would be "free to fight".
Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone could have 22 races jostling for a slot next season but teams have made clear they want the calendar limited to 20.
"It was not a problem of the mechanics, it was our problem and we have to make sure we fix it"
Nico Rosberg is refusing to get carried away by thoughts of celebrating a maiden Formula One title triumph at the end of the season, despite getting one hand on the championship crown with victory in the Japanese Grand Prix. The German eased to a maiden win from pole position at the Suzuka circuit on Sunday, chalking up his ninth win of the year, to lift himself 33 points clear of Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in the overall standings.
The Briton's Finnish team mate Valtteri Bottas will line up alongside on the front row of the starting grid with Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel behind them.
The German is 40 points adrift of Mercedes rival Lewis Hamilton with six races remaining and is running out of time to reassert himself in the battle of the four times world champions.
Lewis Hamilton kept championship leader Sebastian Vettel off the top of the timesheets in both Friday practice sessions for the Korean Formula One Grand Prix while Kimi Raikkonen slammed his Lotus into a tyre wall.
The deepening of the Formula One financial crisis prompted Force India boss Vijay Mallya to say that the sport's owners must fix the revenue sharing model among teams for the survival of smaller outfits like his.
Lewis Hamilton was booed on the podium after a last-lap collision with Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg handed the triple Formula One world champion a dramatic first Austrian Grand Prix victory on Sunday.
Lewis Hamilton always dreamed of matching the achievements of his boyhood idol Ayrton Senna, winning as many races and titles as the late great Brazilian who had inspired him to beat the odds.
Verstappen made a clean getaway from pole position and it took Hamilton all but the last four of the 70 laps to catch and pass the 21-year-old Dutchman. Mercedes got the strategy spot on, despite the Briton's reservations.
Force India vowed to rein in fractious Formula One drivers Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez after more costly collisions between the pair at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has had more success in Shanghai than any other Formula One driver, which makes Sunday's Chinese Grand Prix the ideal location for the triple world champion to end Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg's winning streak. While Rosberg has started the season with a perfect 50 points from two races, and a run of five successive victories dating back to last November, Hamilton is ready to turn the tables. The Briton has won four times in Shanghai and is on for three in a row after last season becoming the only driver to win the race in successive years. "It's not been a smooth start to the season for me, so to be in the championship position I'm in right now is actually pretty positive," said Hamilton, who lies second in the standings after a second and a third place. "Now we go to China for the next battle. It's a track that's been good to me over the years... so hopefully this race can be the turning point." Hamilton has not won since he took his third world championship in Austin, Texas, last October but the 31-year-old has started both races this season on pole position.
Germany's Nico Rosberg won the Italian Grand Prix for dominant Mercedes on Sunday to cut teammate Lewis Hamilton's Formula One world championship lead to two points with seven races remaining.
Lewis Hamilton, who is also an avid tattoo lover, revealed that each image on his body has a meaning to it.
Finnish team mate Kimi Raikkonen, who started on pole for the first time in nine years but lost the lead in the pitstops, made sure of a Ferrari one-two with Hamilton finishing seventh for Mercedes after starting 13th.
Formula One had been braced for crashes and mayhem in Azerbaijan's race debut in Baku on Sunday but instead the drivers defied all expectations and barely put a wheel out of place.
While Formula One rivals head to the sea or mountains at the start of the August break, Max Verstappen has some driving lessons on the horizon.
Max Verstappen was compared to Formula One greats Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher on Sunday after the Dutch teenager's sensational drive to third place in a wet and chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix. Even father and former racer Jos, the 19-year-old Red Bull driver's biggest fan and fiercest critic, was astonished. "What Max showed here today was really special," he said of a race likely to go down in the sport's annals as one for the ages. In the last 15 laps, after a change to extreme wet tyres, Verstappen passed more than half the starting grid as he went from 16th place to the podium.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton soaked up the energy of a roaring home crowd to win the British Grand Prix.
However intense the pain felt by Formula One after Jules Bianchi's horrific accident in Japan, and the shock is deep indeed, Friday's inaugural Russian Grand Prix practice offers some respite.
Mexican Sergio Perez and Germany's Nico Hulkenberg are staying at Force India next season, the Formula One team's co-owner Vijay Mallya told Reuters. "I can confirm that both the drivers are signed up for 2017," Mallya said at the British Grand Prix. "They are a fine pair, both absolutely top class. I've never believed in 'pay drivers' where talent or ability is compromised," he added.
Fresh from his 50th Formula One win, triple world champion Lewis Hamilton remains convinced anything is possible in the title race even if he could lose his crown as early as Sunday.
Max Verstappen put Red Bull on pole position for Formula One's season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix on Saturday, with seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton alongside on the front row for Mercedes.
It was the first time this season that Mercedes had failed to take pole and Sunday's race will be Williams's first start from the front of the grid since Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado in Spain in 2012.
Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg has admitted he is feeling extremely gutted after his collision with teammate Lewis Hamilton at Spanish Grand Prix, which ended his seven-race winning streak.
Formula One is changing its scoring system to award a point to the driver who sets the fastest race lap, starting from this weekend's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.
There has been speculation within Formula One that Lawrence Stroll, the billionaire father of Canadian driver Lance, is willing to invest in Force India as part of a move for his son from Williams.
Formula One drivers sought reassurance from tyre supplier Pirelli on Friday after world champion Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari's Fernando Alonso suffered punctures in second practice at the Belgian Grand Prix.
Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton took pole position for the French Grand Prix on Saturday with Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas alongside him on the front row.
'McLaren car is 100 percent ready'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances