INTERVIEW: Christian Horner on Red Bull rising
TECHNICAL: F1i's review of 2016
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Nico Hulkenberg says it will be "very difficult" for Force India to progress beyond this season's fourth place in the constructors' championship.
Force India secured the best result in its history in 2016, with Hulkenberg helping the team beat Williams to fourth place behind Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari. Despite the impressive result, the German is moving to Renault over the winter having been enticed by the potential of a factory-backed team.
Asked whether Force India can better its 2016 finishing position or if budget constraints make that impossible, Hulkenberg admits he doesn't see the team moving further up the grid.
“Difficult to predict," Hulkenberg said. "To move on further, to close the gap in terms of being in the mix with the top three teams, it’s very difficult.
"I think they would need a bit more budget, more resources. I think the people are there, we have a very good team in place at the track but also back at the factory so I think that wouldn’t stop it. It’s a huge challenge and it’s not easy.”
While Hulkenberg enjoyed a solid season this year, he was outshone by Sergio Perez who scored two podiums and finished seventh in the drivers' championship. Despite ending this year 29 points behind his team-mate, Hulkenberg says he doesn't look back on 2016 with regret.
“No regrets. Obviously there is a few events let’s say, like Monaco, where we’ve done a mistake on the strategy side when we had a pretty good result on the table. That’s probably the biggest, not regret, but the biggest frustration of the season.”
INTERVIEW: Christian Horner on Red Bull rising
TECHNICAL: F1i's review of 2016
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
Ferrari has confirmed that it has secured the services of Loic Serra and Jerome d’Ambrosio,…
The FIA's Superlicence system, introduced in 2016 partly in response to Max Verstappen's meteoric rise…
It all started on May 13, 1950 at Silverstone Circuit, where Alfa Romeo's Giuseppe Farina…
F1 Academy leader Abbi Pulling became on Sunday at Brands Hatch the first-ever woman to…
The legal turmoil between the Haas F1 Team and its former team principal Guenther Steiner…
Sebastian Vettel won’t be making his Le Mans debut with Porsche next month, but the…