Nico Hulkenberg admits Force India has a lot of catching up to do compared to its rivals, but he hailed the VJM08’s initial reliability “remarkable”.
The Silverstone based outfit has delayed its new car until the final test due to unspecified problems which are thought to be financial.
It finally made its on-track debut on Friday afternoon and completed 77 laps without issue.
“Just from a pure running point of view, it was very good,” Hulkenberg said. “Out of the box there was no issue, not one. We managed 77 laps pretty much only in an afternoon, which is pretty remarkable.
“We are playing catch up at the moment and making checks that teams have done weeks ago, but it was a positive day. We now need to try and learn about this car quickly.”
Although it’s early days, Hulkenberg believes the car is already better than last years which secured the team sixth in the standings.
“Some areas remind me of last year’s car, it doesn’t feel like a totally different car,” he added. “Some areas are better, I can tell already, some areas we need to work on, but that isn’t unusual.”
Head to our Barcelona pre-season test gallery for more photos.
