Hulkenberg not judging new car yet

The new car was unveiled in the pit lane at the Portuguese track this morning, before completing 17 laps in Hulkenberg's hands during a drizzly morning session.

"Straight away the new car feels okay, I feel comfortable in it and for a new car, we have also had a trouble-free morning technically, which is important," said the German.

"Of course everyone will want to know how it compares to the 2008 car and what the impact of the rule changes are from a driver's point of view.

"In truth, I cannot say too much after a few laps, because the track is 100 per cent new to me, I have never run here and also it is pretty wet, so I have no baseline for comparison if we were at Jerez or Barcelona in the dry, I could be a little more specific.

"But the important thing for today is simply to make sure we run through all the checks of the basic systems on the car and confirm everything is working as it should. So far that is the case and we can be happy."