Hulkenberg not expecting "flat-out" F1 races

The shift to wider tyres and the goal of lower degradation are expected to allow drivers to push more during races, and reduce the need for drivers to manage their rubber.

But new Renault signing Hulkenberg isn't convinced that F1 will face an era of flat-out racing, the German cagey on the idea of being able to lean on the new-spec Pirellis for entire stints during a race.

"Perhaps…," he told Motorsport.com when asked if drivers will be able to push more in 2017. "I think still you can't go flat out all the way, you'll pay a price along the way."

Hulkenberg is one of few current F1 drivers with recent experience on a low-degradation tyre, having run on World Endurance-spec Michelins on the way to winning at Le Mans for Porsche in 2015 – and he says it was a night and day difference to the Pirellis in terms of achieving a laptime.

"I was surprised," he said. "When I started testing the Porsche, and the first race at Spa and so on, I had to learn it.

"Initially I wasn't on the pace, because I was driving quite conservatively because I was used to the Pirelli tyres. If you slide them and be a bit to aggressive, you go backwards at some point. But that wasn't the case in the LMP car. You had to go there to get the laptime.

"The surprising thing I learnt is that you could keep it there all the time, it wouldn't go away from you. It's quite a different ballgame."

While not predicting flat-out races, Hulkenberg did say that the new cars are significantly more enjoyable to drive.

"It feels similar to previous years – just faster," he said. "More grip means you can go faster around the corners, brake later, it's a pretty simple formula.

"Faster is cool, it's more fun for the drivers for sure. There is more of a sensation of speed, and definitely the cars have taken a step up in physicality, they are more demanding."

Targeting Williams

Teammate Jolyon Palmer added that, based on testing form, he expects Williams to be the best of the teams outside of the big three, with Renault part of the midfield pack right behind.

However, with a big development push in the works, he reckons Williams is "not out of reach".

"I would say Williams is fourth, and then there is a mass of cars behind that in the midfield," he said.

"We expect to be in there. But we don't know if we're the fifth best team or the eighth best team. It will be really tight, and Williams isn't out of reach.

"The engine, I think they've made progress, but I would say we've got the third-best engine. Hopefully the gap is closing all of the time. And then the chassis, we can compare with where Red Bull are and they're ahead of us still.

"We've still got more to come in both areas, and we've made improvements on last year.

"The thing is, it's the first year in the cycle of the car, so we're finding things in the wind tunnel and at the factory all the time.

"[The development phase] will be big, and we've got quite good resources – so even if we start in the midfield hopefully through the year we can move to be a solid top five or four."