Formula One drivers such as Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo need to be given the chance to compete with the dominant Mercedes team for the sake of fans, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says.

Mercedes have won 16 of 19 grands prix in the past two years, also notching 23 one-two finishes in that period.

Ricciardo finished a distant eighth in the 2015 world title standings, only picking up two podium finishes.

Horner believes the dominance of Mercedes’ pair Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton is damaging the sport, and a solution needs to be found to level out the field.

“We want to see Daniel Ricciardo competing, and we want to see Sebastian Vettel competing against Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg,” Horner told Autosport.com.

“You can’t expect the teams to achieve that, that’s for the regulator and the governing body to come up with a set of rules that achieve those objectives.”

Horner says Mercedes’ dominant run is different to what his team did during their stretch of four consecutive titles with German star Vettel driving from 2010 to 2013.

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

“Inevitably, with predictability, people get turned off and it needs a rejig to bring it closer together.”

Horner believes there’s little chance of an end to Mercedes’ dominance in 2016 but both he and Ricciardo believe better results could be attained in 2017.

“I think it’s made us stronger,” Ricciardo told Motorsport.com about his 2015 struggles.

“When we get the equipment again – the full package – we’ll kill it.”