Renault had a tough time with its works team's comeback year in F1 in 2016, the outfit not managing to regularly compete for points and finishing only ninth in the constructors' standings.

And Hulkenberg, who left fourth-placed Force India to join Renault on a multi-year deal, acknowledges his new team will need more time to establish itself in F1's pecking order.

"I think next year is still a build-up year. We have to be realistic," Hulkenberg said.

"This year they come from a pretty difficult year, and obviously when they bought the team last year they were in a very tricky situation, especially at the beginning of the season.

"They didn’t do much in terms of development of this car [RS16], so I hope next year is a little bit better already. But I don’t expect to be there in the top six straight away, even top 10 is going to be challenging.

"These things take long - to build an infrastructure back up and get good people back on board and develop the car."

Force India needs "more budget" to progress

Hulkenberg's now-former team Force India has been steadily climbing up the ranks since its arrival in 2008 - but the German reckons it cannot make further inroads without an increase in available resources.

"To move on even further, to close the gap and then be in the mix with the top three teams is very difficult - and I think that [Force India] will need a bit more budget, a bit more resources," Hulkenberg said.

"I think people are there, a very good team in place at the track but also back at the factory so I think that won’t stop it. It is a huge challenge. It is not easy."

Additional reporting by Jonathan Noble