Christian Horner has urged Formula 1 to push ahead with plans to substantially speed up the cars for 2017.

The Red Bull chief's comments follow former protege Sebastian Vettel's claims that F1 risks becoming "lost" amid the controversial power unit era in which Mercedes is dominating.

"I think Sebastian is right in that the drivers need to be the stars," Horner said on Wednesday at the launch of Red Bull's new livery for 2016.

"We've got a chance for 2017 and it's important that we get that right. The chassis changes for 2017 need to put the emphasis on the driver and the cars for 2017 need to be big, difficult and powerful and really stretch the drivers so you get a bigger differentiation between them.

"We have got a golden opportunity to address that and it's important we don't miss that in the next couple of weeks."

While the 2017 shakeup has been under discussion for some time, there have been rumblings recently that Mercedes is urging caution and Pirelli is warning that laptime cannot be slashed unless much more testing is done.