Hulkenberg "encouraged" by Renault's performance in Barcelona

Nico Hulkenberg revealed he is satisfied with Renault's progress they made during the pre-season testing in Barcelona.

In the first week, the French works team suffered some early setbacks with its DRS system - but the problems were swiftly amended and Renault's brand new R.S 19 demonstrated its speed and reliability throughout the second week of testing.

Hulkenberg finished the testing as "best of the rest" - just like he did so many times last season - sitting just behind Mercedes and Ferrari in P5 on the testing leaderboard.

The German driver was one of only four drivers to complete over 500 laps over the course of the fortnight.

"We've made good progress as a team from last year in particular on the power unit," Hulkenberg said. "Our reliability has been decent, we had a few small issues here and there, but the team dealt with anything like that quite well and still managed a high lap-count.

"I leave Barcelona feeling encouraged after a busy eight days in the car. We head to Melbourne feeling relatively confident."

Hulkenberg will be desperate for his first ever podium finish in Formula 1, as drivers and teams are preparing for the new season. However, the German didn't want to think about where he might finish in Melbourne just yet.

"We know the competition is extremely tight, but we only want to focus on ourselves," Hulkenberg added. "But in the meantime, we have a lot of analysis to look at to ensure we maximise the potential from the car."