Hulkenberg says gap to F1 frontrunners "scary"

The introduction of new regulations for the 2017 season has translated into the leading teams opening a bigger gap to their pursuers, with Mercedes and Ferrari emerging miles ahead of the competition.

In the first race of the European season in Spain, only three cars - a Mercedes, a Ferrari and a Red Bull - finished on the lead lap.

Hulkenberg labelled the gap to the frontrunners as "massive".

"It is a bit scary. The gap is massive from Ferrari and Mercedes even to Red Bull," Hulkenberg told Motorsport.com. "And from Red Bull to Williams again there is half a day, so...

"I'm not sure if you could have expected that, but I think especially Mercedes and Ferrari, their developments, what they've done over the winter and the pace they have it's pretty special."

When asked if he thought the main reason for the gap was chassis or engine, he added: "Difficult to quantify. I think it's more chassis and aerodynamics than engine. I don't know the numbers, because it's big numbers, probably 70 to 80 [percent] chassis."

Hulkenberg, who joined Renault from Force India for this season, scored his best result of the year in Barcelona thanks to a sixth-place finish.

While the German admits the the French squad needs to get everything right in the races in order to be in the points, he says the team's position is exactly what he expected when he decided to join.

"I think the performance and where the car stands and where we are is pretty much is what I thought we would get when I signed up last year," he said.

"I did not expect any miracles, that we will be straight away in a top seven easily, I think pretty much what I thought where we are, where we find ourselves now.

"We can fight for points, we need a little bit of luck and to do a bloody good job and every decision has to be right, otherwise no points. But Renault has over the winter achieved to get the connection to the midfield straight away."

Interview by Oleg Karpov and Erwin Jaeggi