Nico Hulkenberg says he has been encouraged by Renault’s development, but on- and off-track, as he enters his second campaign with the team.
Hulkenberg joined Renault prior to 2017 – after previous stints in Formula 1 with Williams (2010), Sauber (2013) and Force India (2012, 2014-16) – when the French manufacturer was one year in to its full-time comeback.
Renault has expanded its facilities and headcount at Enstone and Viry-Chatillon as it continues towards its target of competing for the Formula 1 title in 2020.
“It feels much more mature and like a grown operation and unit” said Hulkenberg on Renault’s year-on-year progress.
“Also the car build, how the car is running, what we achieved is 100 degrees better than last year.
“So that’s all very, very good and what was the target but also what we need to do if we want to succeed with this project.”
Hulkenberg was also buoyed by the information Renault was able to gather across the course of the two pre-season test sessions at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
“Melbourne is luckily not too far away and we finally go racing again,” he said. “I feel good. I feel positive.
“We’ve managed to collect a lot of miles and a lot of data and pretty much successfully go through our programme which is not always that normal in winter testing.
“From that we will build a much better knowledge about the car and our understanding of the car. Also already for the development going forward.”
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