Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Hulkenberg: VJM09 'still feels like home'

Nico Hulkenberg says the new Force India VJM09 "still feels like home" as a result of the team's evolutionary approach to this year's car.

Force India finished 2015 in impressive form, with the team's B-spec car - introduced mid-way through the season - helping it finish fifth in the constructors' championship. This year's VJM09 looks visually similar to its predecessor and has seen Force India post some quick times during the first pre-season test.

Hulkenberg was fastest on the third day of the test, and asked if the car felt very different, the German replied: "No.

"It’s not a completely different car - you feel that this is probably an evolution of where we finished off last year, and it still feels like home.

"I think the potential was more or less there [from the start]. Obviously we had a test programme and we went through different set-up options, just usual testing really."

With development driver Alfonso Celis having driven on two of the opening four days of testing while Hulkenberg and team-mate Sergio Perez only had one day each, last year's Le Mans winner admits he wishes he had more track time under his belt.

"Yes, of course, if you give us more time we’ll always take it. But the reality is that we don’t have it, so we’ll make the most of what we have."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.