Nico Hulkenberg believes that Formula 1 has never faced such uncertainty ahead of the start of the new season.

Hulkenberg returns to Force India this year and reckons that the rule changes - which include the introduction of 1.6 litre v6 power units - means that no-one can be sure of the pecking order ahead of the first test at Jerez in two weeks' time.

"At the moment, nobody knows how this season and the new cars are going to be," he said.

"There are a lot of questions which we can’t really answer until we have been on the track, running – not even the first race will be the absolute truth teller. There will be a lot of data we need to look at and analyse, work with it to go forward."

"Never before there has been a situation like this, when with just a couple of weeks before the first test nobody has any idea of where everyone is."

"It’s a pretty unique situation for everyone. It’s a challenge, an opportunity to do something special, but on the other hand it opens up the opportunity to do mistakes, so we will need to do our work well."

Hulkenberg will pair up with former McLaren driver Sergio Perez and says that their similar experience will make their match-up interesting.

"It will be really interesting to work with Checo [Perez]."

"We both have four years’ worth of experience in Formula One, so you can say we are at a similar stage in our careers. Of course, we will both try to be in front of each other, but that’s normal when you are in these circumstances. We thrive in a competitive environment and this is what we will have here."