Days after Helmut Marko tipped former Red Bull star, Sebastian Vettel, for the 2017 title, team boss Christian Horner has echoed the Austrian's confidence in the Ferrari driver's ability and mind-set.

Vettel won his four (consecutive) titles with the Austrian team, and while some would have you believe he always had the best car this isn't so. Indeed, 2010 and 2012 saw the title go down to the wire as he battled Fernando Alonso as the Spaniard sought to claim the title for Ferrari.

"Sebastian is a very focused individual," said Horner, according to Motorsport.com. "He handled pressure extremely well and it was almost a case of the more pressure that came on, the better he responded to it.

"Particularly when you got to the business end of a championship, he was remarkably strong in his head and in his approach," he continued, "so generally, when you got to the flyaway races, you knew that if you had a sniff of a championship, that he would deliver from his side.

"His approach, his application, his attention to detail, his work ethic, were all things that enabled him to deliver those four consecutive titles.

"And two of them, in 2010 and '12, went to the wire. 2012 in particular. He had won one race by the time we had left Europe. Then he won four on the bounce as soon as we went to Singapore onwards."

The German is currently 14 points ahead of title rival Lewis Hamilton.