Haryanto targeting learning as fast as possible

Rio Haryanto will be one of three rookies lining up on the Australian Grand Prix grid this weekend, along with fellow debutants Pascal Wehrlein and Jolyon Palmer.

As an F1 driver emerging from Indonesia for the very first time in the sport's history, the 23-year-old novice as generated some good attention from his home country which hope to see the young hopeful succeed at the highest level of motorsport.

"Yeah, there’s been tremendous support back home," Haryanto says.

"Obviously to be able to compete in Formula 1 is a great thing. I’m very proud and I’m sure the whole nation are proud too to have me in F1."

Haryanto racked a few wins in GP3 and GP2 in the recent past, but the final step up the ladder with Manor Racing implies a steep learning curve which has only just begun.

"I’m new to Formula 1 so there are a lot of things to learn. My expectation is to try to learn as quick as possible and to try to build a good relationship with the team and we’ll see how it goes in the races..."

Manor has itself stepped up to the mantel and produced a car which it hope will greatly improve its relative performance compared to last year.

"Yeah, definitely. It’s a much better package that we have in comparison to last year and that’s the goal, to score points.

"We don’t know when but we’ll try our best every race as the races will be long and let’s see what we can do."

F1i's Australian Grand Prix preview

2016 F1 season: Team-by-team preview

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter