Nico Hulkenberg thinks the reduction in pre-season testing in 2016 will benefit Force India, especially in the early races on the calendar.
After introducing a B-Spec car at Silverstone last year Force India, who missed a significant amount of winter testing in 2015, finished strongly and took a podium through Sergio Perez in Russia. This year the Jerez test has been scrapped, leaving the teams with just two four-day tests in Barcelona to run their 2016 challengers before the Australian Grand Prix.
Force India does not enjoy the wealth of resources available to many of its rivals and Hulkenberg believes could mean the smaller testing schedule is beneficial.
"Less testing could mean better opportunities during the first couple of races if we're better prepared than others and have kept the momentum [of 2015]," he told the official F1 website. "At the end of the day [eight days] is all everybody has and we all have to work with this time."
Hulkenberg won the Le Mans 24 Hours at the first attempt last year but is still yet to visit the F1 podium. The German driver thinks he and Force India can kick on this season and challenge for even stronger results.
"It's always difficult to judge what others will do and where you will pan out for the first race. But from what I have seen of what the team is doing and developing, I think we can challenge for good results - probably even better than in 2015."