F1 Rule Changes Needed - Horner

Formula 1 needs rule changes to make it less predictable, says Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.

Lewis Hamilton won the 2014 and 2015 world drivers' championships from Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Mercedes won the constructors' title in both years, finishing first in 32 out of 38 races and completing 23 one-twos.

"People get turned off with predictability. It needs a rejig to bring it closer together," Horner told Autosport.

The Red Bull boss said it was up to the sport's senior officials, including commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone and FIA president Jean Todt, to find a solution.

"The regulations are incredibly stable for next year, so Mercedes will inevitably carry on the dominance, such is their margin," he added.

Horner believes the situation is different to when Red Bull won four successive constructors' championships and Sebastian Vettel the same number of drivers' titles from 2010 to 2013.

"Two of our world championships went to the last race, and we never finished first and second in a championship," he said.

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FIA Ratifies 21 Grand Prix in 2016

Formula 1 is set for a record number of grands prix next year after the FIA ratified a 21-race calendar for 2016.

A change to regulations agreed on Wednesday means that instead of being restricted to 20 grands prix the F1 season can be extended and there are 21 planned.

There were 20 races in 2012 but now, with a new European Grand Prix in Baku and the return of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim, Lewis Hamilton is likely to face a longer season in his quest to defend his title.

The first grand prix will again take place in Australia during March after a plan to move the start to April was scrapped, and Abu Dhabi will host the last of the 21 races on the final weekend in November.

The United States Grand Prix in Austin remains provisional subject to an agreement with the circuit’s promoter but, if it is confirmed, the race will be part of six back-to-back grands prix throughout the year.

A new race in Azerbaijan is pencilled in for 19 June but the time of the race is likely to be set at a later date to avoid a clash with the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race running the same weekend.

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Hamilton Crazy About Mexico

Lewis Hamilton described the new Mexican Grand Prix circuit as "challenging for everyone but fun".

The new champion joined drivers in remarking on the lack of grip of Mexico City's track but praised the atmosphere created by thousands of fans.

He said: "It's crazy how slippery it is, just sliding around, a bit like a go-kart track in the slow areas."

Hamilton and others praised the last part of the track, which winds through a stadium with steep grandstands.

The Mexican crowd's roar could be heard above the engine noise as Sergio Perez tackled the circuit

"Lots of people for a Friday," Hamilton said. "Fantastic. Hopefully there will be even more over the weekend."

Hamilton, who has won 10 races so far this season on his way to clinching his third world title, still has a chance to equal the record for number of wins in a season over the remaining three races.

But he said he was "not at all" interested in that, saying his target was "the same as usual - just go out and try to be as quick as I can".

This Sunday's race will be live on BBC radio 5 live and the BBC Sport website from 17:30 GMT.

Hamilton was fourth fastest in second practice at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which has been remodelled since it last hosted a Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1992.

The track is at an altitude of 2,285 metres (7,500 feet), which means the cars' aerodynamics work less effectively than at circuits with a lower elevation because of the thinner air.

Hamilton was one of several drivers to lose control of their car during changeable conditions in second practice

Hamilton's Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who was fastest ahead of the Red Bull drivers Daniil Kvyat and Daniel Ricciardo, said: "It is great to learn a new track. They have done a good job.

"It is so high up, it is like a ski station in Europe. The air is very thin and even down the straights there is no resistance, so we have the Monaco rear wing on the car but we're doing Monza speeds."

Rosberg's thin hopes of delaying Hamilton's coronation as champion died following a mistake in the closing stages of the US Grand Prix last weekend.

He ran wide while leading and handed the lead and eventual victory to Hamilton, who therefore scored enough points to put the title out of his rivals' reach.

With the races in Mexico, Brazil and Abu Dhabi to go, Rosberg lies second, four points behind Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

Asked if his motivation was now securing second place in the championship, Rosberg said: "That is not my motivation. It is beating the guy next to me [Hamilton]."

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Vettel Wins Fourth F1 Title

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Sebastian Vettel wrapped up his fourth consecutive drivers' championship in style with a convincing win in Sunday's 2013 Formula 1 Airtel Indian Grand Prix.

The German, whose victory also secured a fourth straight constructors' crown for Red Bull, finished half a minute clear of Mercedes' Nico Rosberg, with Lotus's Romain Grosjean an impressive third having started 17th.

Vettel jumped into the lead at the start of the race, but dropped back through the field after making an early stop to remove the less durable soft tyres. Ferrari’s Felipe Massa then moved ahead followed by the Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, but when they too stopped, the second Red Bull of Mark Webber moved into P1, the Australian having started on the medium-compound rubber. 

Vettel, meanwhile, stormed back through the pack until he was in a position to reclaim the lead from his team mate when Webber was forced to use the soft tyres. When both men had completed all of their stops, Vettel held a 13-second lead over Webber, but the Australian was soon ruled out of contention when an alternator problem forced him to retire.

Vettel was then left with a healthy lead over Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, and although Red Bull were nervous of a similar problem to Webber’s afflicting his RB9, the 26-year-old cruised to the chequered flag to record his sixth successive win.

Raikkonen, who had tried an ambitious one-stop strategy, fell back towards the tail end of the race, losing positions to Rosberg and then begrudgingly to team mate Grosjean who’d charged through the field after starting 17th. Massa, McLaren’s Sergio Perez and Hamilton also found their way past Raikkonen as the Finn’s tyres continued to lose performance and in the end he was eventually forced to pit, emerging in seventh where he stayed to the finish.

The top ten was completed by the Force India pair of Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil in eighth and ninth, and Toro Rosso’s Daniel Ricciardo in tenth.

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Aussie Grit Claims Pole

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Mark Webber claimed his first pole position of the season - and his first since Korea last year - with a superb performance in qualifying in Japan on Saturday afternoon. The Australian got the better of Red Bull team mate Sebastian Vettel, who suffered from intermittent KERS issues in Q3.

Webber had set the pace in Q1 at Suzuka with 1m 32.271s as he took the honours away from Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who in turn had displaced Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso. But with only a few minutes remaining the session was temporarily red-flagged when Jean-Eric Vergne’s Toro Rosso rolled to a smoky halt at the Degner Curve with its rear brakes on fire. 

After the STR8 had been liberally doused in fire extinguishant the session resumed briefly, giving those who wanted another run just enough time to complete one more timed lap. There was another fire, this time when Esteban Gutierrez got back to his pit and the rear end of his Sauber was briefly set ablaze.

Several runners, notably Lotus’s Romain Grosjean and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, opted for the medium compound Pirellis and as they jumped to the top of the times with 1m 31.824s and 1m 31.994s respectively, Adrian Sutil paid the price for his FP3 crash and was the first man who failed to get through, with 1m 32.890s. 

Vergne was a sitting duck and dropped to 18th, while Max Chilton did a great job to outqualify the Caterhams. The Englishman lapped his Marussia in 1m 34.320s to Charles Pic’s 1m 34.556s and Giedo van der Garde’s 1m 34.879s. Jules Bianchi did a great job to bang in a lap of 1m 34.958s in his rebuilt Marussia, making the fight between the rival teams closer than it’s been all season.

In Q2 Vettel shaded Webber as he topped the times with 1m 31.290s, while further back McLaren’s Sergio Perez was pipped to a Q3 place as Massa staged a late improvement to sixth place. That left the Mexican on 1m 31.989s just ahead of Paul di Resta on 1m 31.992s for Force India. Valtteri Bottas and Pastor Maldonado were 13th and 15th for Williams with 1m 32.013s and 1m 32.093s respectively, sandwiching Gutierrez on 1m 32.063s. Daniel Ricciardo was 16th on 1m 32.485s in the remaining Toro Rosso.

Webber actually set two times that were quick enough for pole position in Q3; his first lap of 1m 30.975s quicker than Vettel’s two efforts of 1m 31.312s and 1m 31.089s, and his second an improved 1m 30.915s. 

As the Red Bulls wrapped up the front row, Hamilton improved from 10th place to third with his last-gasp lap of 1m 31.253s, moving Grosjean across to the outside of the second row on 1m 31.365s.

Massa once again outgunned Ferrari team mate Alonso, as the Brazilian set the fifth-best time of 1m 31.378s and the Spaniard could only manage 1m 31.665s for eighth. In between them came Nico Rosberg in the other Mercedes on 1m 31.397s and Sauber’s impressive Nico Hulkenberg on 1m 31.644s.

On the fifth row, Kimi Raikkonen recorded 1m 31.684s in the second Lotus to edge ahead of Jenson Button’s 1m 31.827s in the lead McLaren.

Sutil, Pic and Bianchi all have grid penalties; Sutil five places for changing his gearbox after his FP3 crash, and the two Frenchman 10-place penalties apiece for picking up their third reprimands of the season in Korea. That means that the last six drivers on the grid will line up in this order: Vergne, Chilton, Van der Garde, Sutil, Pic and Bianchi.

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Vettel adds Singapore Win

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Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel cruised to a third straight Singapore Grand Prix victory on Sunday and moved 60 points clear of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso after a dominant drive under the floodlights at the Marina Bay Street Circuit.

The German led from pole to flag and lapped on average almost two seconds quicker than his rivals to finish 32.6 seconds clear of Alonso and take another big step towards a fourth successive title with six races remaining.

Kimi Raikkonen shrugged off back pain to climb from 13th on the grid to third for Lotus in a challenging race that was held up by one decisive safety car period when Daniel Ricciardo crashed his Toro Rosso into the barriers on lap 26.

"Yes, yes, that's what I call in control," Vettel shouted over the team radio after chalking up his seventh win of the season and 33rd of his career.

"The car felt absolutely fantastic. This is absolutely a team effort."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Vettel, who was again booed on the podium from some in the crowd below, had been in a league of his own after "one of his best ever drives".

Vettel was challenged briefly by fellow-German Nico Rosberg, who was second on the grid, on the run to the first turn but once he held off the Mercedes, he controlled the race.

Alonso again used a charging start and brilliant strategy to climb from seventh on the grid and keep his title hopes alive. He gambled on pitting for a change of tires during the safety car period and nursing his Ferrari all the way to the flag on medium tires.

"We knew we didn't have the pace today so we had to invent something with a different strategy from the other teams," said the Spaniard. "It paid off at the end.

"We are in a position in the championship where we have nothing to lose."

Raikkonen, who will join Alonso at Ferrari next season, duplicated the Spaniard's strategy and was able to hold on for third place from the fast-charging Mercedes duo of Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, who opted to stay out behind the safety car.

Alonso's Brazilian team mate Felipe Massa finished in sixth place with McLaren's Jenson Button and Sergio Perez claiming the next two spots ahead of Nico Hulkenburg's Sauber and Adrian Sutil in a Force India.

Vettel's team mate Mark Webber briefly climbed up to fourth place in the closing stages but his Red Bull lost power on the last lap and he slipped out of the top 10.

There was also disappointment for Romain Grosjean, who started third on the grid but retired on lap 33 after his Lotus suffered a pneumatic system failure and was called in by his team to retire in the pits.

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Ferrari Confirm Kimi

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Ferrari have confirmed Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen will join Fernando Alonso at the Italian team from 2014 after agreeing a two-year contract.

Raikkonen, 33, won the world title with Ferrari in 2007 but was displaced by the arrival of Spaniard Alonso in 2010.

The Finn will replace Felipe Massa, who announced via Twitter that he will leave at the end of the current season.

Raikkonen said: "I'm really happy to return to Maranello where I spent three fantastic and very successful years."
"I can't wait to be driving a Ferrari car again and to reacquaint myself with so many people with whom I had such close links, as well as working with Fernando, whom I consider a great driver, in order to bring the team the success it deserves."

Lotus are expected to replace Raikkonen with Sauber's German driver Nico Hulkenburg.

Raikkonen had also been linked with a move to Red Bull after impressing with victory in the opening race of 2013 at the Australian Grand Prix, followed by second-place finishes in China, Bahrain, and Spain.

Red Bull opted to promote Daniel Ricciardo from their Toro Rosso junior team rather than continue to pursue Raikkonen.

Raikkonen is only in his second season back in Formula 1 following a two-year break during which he pursued a career in rallying.

His 2012 return was marked with seven podium finishes, including victory in Abu Dhabi in the penultimate race of the season.

Ferrari's decision to partner Alonso with Raikkonen signals a return to the policy last employed between 2007 and 2009 when Raikkonen and Massa competed on equal terms.

Either side of that period, with Michael Schumacher from 1996-2006 and then with Alonso for the last four years, there has been a clear number one driver.

Former world champion Sir Jackie Stewart, who works as a consultant for the Lotus team, told BBC Sport thatRaikkonen's presence could unsettle Alonso, who has been used to being the focus of the team's efforts.

Alonso's relationship with McLaren, when he was team-mates with Lewis Hamilton in 2007, was famously turbulent, and the ructions led to him leaving the team just one year into a three-year contract.

Alonso has since made it clear that his problems at the time were not with Hamilton but with the team not delivering on promises that had been made to him about his status.

And in a statement on the Ferrari website, he paid tribute to Massa and looked forward to Raikkonen joining the team.

"It will not be easy to say goodbye to a team-mate like him. He has always been truly professional and loyal to the team and I am sure that right to the end, he will do his utmost for the Scuderia that he loves so much.

"I'd like to welcome my new travelling companion: together, starting next year, we will have to tackle a very demanding technical and racing challenge."

Ferrari's decision, which was approved by the team's president Luca Di Montezemolo, leaves Lotus with a second key vacancy to fill.

They also lost highly-rated technical director James Allison to Ferrari earlier this year and have since struggled to persuade Raikkonen that they have the technical and financial resources to compete at the front in 2014.

Raikkonen is the first driver to return to Ferrari after a previous spell since Austrian Gerhard Berger re-joined them in 1993 after leaving them at the end of 1989 to join McLaren.

Ferrari trail Red Bull by 104 points in the team standings this season, with Alonso's successes in Spain and China dwarfed by rival Sebastian Vettel's six wins.

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