Nico Hulkenberg is writing off suggestions that he is the de facto team leader at Renault this season.

On the eve of his seventh year of Grand Prix racing and his first with a full works team after stints with Williams, Sauber and Force India, Hulkenberg is perceived as the natural leader and galvanizer at Renault given his experience compared to team mate Jolyon Palmer.

But the German says he is indifferent to the label, preferring to focus on the job at hand and building Renault and his own successful future.

“To be honest that’s not so important,” he told Racer‘s Chris Medland.

“I think that’s something that gets emphasised by the media, to lead the team.  What does it mean, to lead the team?

“You want to be in front, you want to beat your team-mate. If you lead or not, it doesn’t matter.”

“It’s more important for me to help the team, to bring it forward, to develop it and then later on to develop for me.

“That also means I have to beat my team–mate whoever that will be, both this year and beyond.

But I’m not too fussed about the leader thing – I’m going to do my job and whoever is next to me is not really that important to me.”

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter