Nico Hulkenber🌌g feels Renault⛎ needs to ask itself some "serious questions" after a disappointing start to the 2019 Formula 1 season that has seen it perform "quite below expectations".

Renault entered the season looking to build on its fourth-place finish in last ♉year's constructors' championship and push to bridge the ཧgap to the leading three teams, only to take a step back further into the midfield.

A failure to score any points in either Germany or Hungary caused Renault to drop to P6 in the standings behind Toro Rosso, and the team has less than half as many points as McL🐓aren, which currently leads the midfield battle to sit fourth in the championship.

Reflecting on his first half of the season, Hulkenberg said Renault needed to carefully revi🐎ew its struggles so far this season, giving a brutal☂ly honest assessment of its year so far.

"It’s a tough one. It’s obviously quite below our expectations and the targets," Hulkenberg sa💖id.

"I think we need to ask ourselves s𒀰ome serious 🔯questions and review a couple of things internally.

"There have been f🍷ar more lows than highs, unfortunately, and ౠnot really satisfying."

Asked what those serious questꩲions were, Hulkenberg said: "Just how we go about things and where we’ve come the last 18 months with the car, what we’ve been doing, and the effect it has, which is not that much of a🅠n effect.

"So we need to ask ourselves in the future so updates wil🦹l bring some𝓀 yield and bring us forward."

Hulkenberg himself sits P14 in the drivers' championship after picking up less than one-third of his poin🍎ts total at the same point in 2018. The German also trails teammate Daniel Ricciardo by five points.

Hulkenberg finished outside of the poin🏅ts in Hungary last w✃eekend after an early power issue left him struggling through much of the race, but he was sceptical of his top-10 chances regardless.

"I ha💜d a power unit i𓆉ssue very early in the race. We lost the seamless shift a bit and lost quite a bit of lap time from power, from speed, that made it hard to stay in the race," Hulkenberg explained.

"The car was quite difficult 🍷to drive again today. The balance didn’t really feel together at all today, it was fighting the front axle, the rear axle. I didn’t have the pace. With these things we c🐭an’t expect too much."