Force India driver Nico Hulkenberg was impressive last season, finishing in 10th place with 58 points in the drivers' championship. There are huge expectations from Hulkenberg this season, and the driver has given the team a huge boost already by setting the fastest time (1m 23.110s) in preseason testing in Barcelona, Wednesday.
One also has to take note that the Force India driver came up with such a timing on soft tyres, with Force India's VJM09 looking in great shape in Barcelona.
No other driver, barring Sebastian Vettel (1m 22.810s), has been faster than Hulkenberg in testing. Despite the impressive performance, Hulkenberg does not want to read too much into the timings.
"Today we tried a bit more [than the competition] to test where our package stands at the moment. There is no reason to get over excited. It looks okay so far, but there is still a lot of work to do. We are not at our best: there is still stuff to learn and look at," F1 official website quoted Hulkenberg as saying.
"We're on schedule, on target - we're learning more and more every day. Days like this are very encouraging, but I wouldn't get too excited in these early stage to be honest."
Force India might have looked good so far in testing, but they need to be at their best in the first Formula One race of the season in Australia, which is scheduled for March 20. They have around 25-odd days before the start of the season and they will be keen to improve on their car ahead of the new season.
It remains to be seen if team owner, Vijay Mallya's hopes of finishing fourth in the constructors' standings can be achieved or not, but in Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, they have two talented drivers, who can bring laurels to the team.
