Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsForce India

Hulkenberg eyes Williams, prepared for Red Bull fight

Nico Hulkenberg wants Force India to target beating Williams this season but expects to be fighting with Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

Force India looked strong throughout pre-season testing, with the team having produced an evolution of the B-spec VJM08 which ended last season so impressively. With Williams another Mercedes customer, Hulkenberg says Force India should aspire to challenge the team which finished third in last year's constructors' championship.

"I’d like to think we can attack Williams and be on their level, if we can manage that it would be pretty good," Hulkenberg said. "From my feeling and what I’ve seen so far I think we will have a battle with Toro Rosso and Red Bull."

Last season Force India only ran its new car for two days of pre-season following an overhaul of its aerodynamic department, with the team waiting to deliver a major upgrade mid-season. This time round Hulkenberg believes the progress made over the winter will enable Force India to hit the ground running from the first race.

"We feel as prepared as we can be. We’ve gone through our programme and we need to see where we pan out in Melbourne and the first couple of races. I have a feeling we’ll be close or similar to where we finished at the end of last year so that is a good starting point. Later in the year I see good potential in the car because I know there is more in the pipeline."

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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.