Sauber revises fuel system procedures after Australian GP issue

Hulkenberg could not start the first race of the season after his team discovered the fuel tank had suffered damaged when it collapsed in on itself.

This has been caused by a vacuum building up inside the structure.

Although the team has reacted by building up a new chassis for Hulkenberg at Sepang, it has also made further changes to its operations procedures to prevent another issue.

Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn said: "What happened was that many factors led to the creation of a vacuum in the fuel cell - so it collapsed on itself.

"That damaged the fuel cell. The engineers already had a good understanding of it in Melbourne. We tested some things there and had some tests in Hinwil.

"We have introduced a couple of measures, and looked at different reasons that should lead us to solve the problem."

Kaltenborn said the non-start in Melbourne was particularly galling because Hulkenberg would have had a good opportunity to score points in his first race with the team.

"He obviously was not too happy about the situation because, if you look at the position he was meant to be starting the race, it was quite a good position.

"Everything is now speculation in terms of where he could end up. He had a good chance to get in the points and if you see this chance fizzle out, maybe two hours before the race, it is particularly disappointing."

Hulkenberg himself, who has yet to complete a racing lap in Australia in three attempts, believed the lack of running last weekend will not hamper his efforts this time out.

"I don't feel on the back foot," he said. "If you haven't done the race then it's difficult to comment. You don't know where you would have been.

"Things might have been brighter than we think, better, or even worse. We don't know. And that makes it hard and disappointing but I wouldn't say on the back foot.

"What we've seen from the car is that is performing at a level where we can score points."