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Sergio Perez says he "kind of expected" to see Force India teammate Nico Hulkenberg move to Renault after turning the seat down himself. Until being confirmed for another season during the Malaysian Grand Prix, Perez's future had looked uncertain as he assessed options with Williams and Renault. In the weeks since Hulkenberg has been confirmed to that Renault role next year, ending his three-year partnership with Perez at Force India. When asked if he had been surprised to hear the Hulkenberg news, he said: "I knew that if I didn't go there then Nico was very high on their list. So it was kind of expected." Perez is relishing the challenge of driving alongside a new teammate in 2017. "I will have a new team-mate, so let's see what happens. Obviously it's always new to work with new people. I've worked for three season with Nico and I think I learned a lot from him and I'm looking forward to getting a new team-mate and learning things from a new driver." The Mexican thinks he has performed at his best alongside Hulkenberg, who he called his "strongest" teammate in Formula One. "I think the relationship between myself and Nico was good. But not only that I think our level was really closely matched every single practice. That means a lot to the team because we push the team forward and that shows in the benefit of the team to have two team-mates that are so closely matched together. "I always knew that if I didn't get the perfect lap in qualifying he would beat me and vice versa. And also in the race, and race after race, so that just helps the team because through our seasons [together] we had bad cars and good cars but it was always important to make sure we took the maximum out of each car.
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