Jolyon Palmer

2014 GP2 champion Jolyon Palmer joins the grid for 2016 for a deserved shot at F1. The son of Dr Jonathan Palmer but probably quicker than he ever was. He has a younger brother named Will Palmer who is BRDC F4 champ and probably quicker than him but that's for a future debate.

Palmer's pedigree is questioned by some due to that fact he spent 4 years in GP2 before winning the title but when you see that he joined the series as a 20 year old, and had only done 2 years of single setters prior, it's easy to see he did his development within the series. Anyone who saw his impressive 2014 championship will have no doubts this boy is a racing driver. He showed he was the master of consistency and very good at being in the right place at the right time tactically. I would say he was a better defensive driver than an attacking driver but is always fun to watch. Something that the media obviously agree with as he won the journalist's driver of the year award 2014.

With Palmer stepping on to the grid it does reignite a simmering little rivalry between himself and Sauber's Felipe Nasr. The two were GP2 teammates in 2013 and whilst Nasr was on average the quicker he scored no wins whilst Palmer was able to notch up some P1s. In 2014 they were no longer team mates but title rivals and whilst the fight was close for a while Palmer got the upper hand and in fact completely phsyced Nasr out mentally to the point where the Brazilian just spent his time ranting on team radio rather than racing. Palmer's post race podium interview where he said Nasr needs to 'stop whinging' whilst Felipe was standing next to him was very fun to watch. No love lost between the two so will be interesting to see what happens when they're on the same piece of road this year.

Palmer is a quick driver with a good head on his shoulders but I'm not really sure he has what it takes to be much more that a top end midfield guy. Think Johnny Herbert rather than Damon Hill. Unfortunately due to the state of his Renault car he will most likely not get a chance to prove us wrong. I expect to see lots of him walking away from parked cars with smoking engines. How he holds up against the much fancied Kevin Magnuersen will be an interesting one though.
 
Last edited:
Which brings me on to my pet hate with the scoring system. We get excited for a driver who scores a point and then reality dawns that we are talking about 10th. At least his dad had to drag the pile of garbage he drove up to a respectable 6th to get a point.

But, at least Palmer Jnr has a point on the board which is something I guess.
 
To be fair, cider_and_toast, the rates of reliability as they were right up to the 2000s bear no comparison at all with the current era. A 6th back then is probably equivalent to a 12th today.

Look at the German GP of 1994. 4 of the top 5 constructors in the eventual championship scored no points, there were only 8 finishers (one of which was Damon Hill with a buggered suspension) so Ligier took two podiums and Footwork 4th and 5th.
Panis' Ligier also got on the podium the next year at Adelaide, two laps down on the race winner!

There's just so little opportunity for most of the teams to reach those heights if you get a year where the top 3 just don't break down. The top teams are dominant enough without hoovering up a higher percentage of the points.
 
It's an era thing I guess. Not helped by the fact I don't rate Palmer. Then again, I did get a bit excited when Manor scored the same one point. Ah well.
 
Palmer doesn't seemed to be liked by many. I feel a bit bad for the kid to be honest. He may not be the best driver in the field but he is a GP2 champion and is much better than the crappy Renault he is driving is showing.

Still - he wouldn't make my best 22 to be on the grid.
 
He was really quick in F2, the problem with that was most of the really, really quick guys jumped from F3 to F1 back in those days.
 
Brave move from a mediocre driver to lash out at his team, comments attacking the own team never bode well not even if you are a two time world champion.
So Jolyon, who or what are you?

He reminds me of Pastor Maldonado, except that he doesn't have his pace and doesn't crash as much, but he also likes to mouth off at others despite being s**t.
 
Last edited:
Whilst I agree with most of what you say I'm going to cut him some slack due to the fact that having your brakes stick on at the same corner consistently is prob enough to make anyone a bit grumpy.

I get the feeling he's just keeping that seat warm until Oli Rowland is ready to take it anyway.
 
I don't believe Rowland will be offered the opportunity to race in F1, there are too many other young drivers out there who already seem to have a foot in the door, Gasly, LeClerc etc. despite him being in the Renault young drivers programme.

I really want to see him in F1 though I have been following his career since 2007, he was an outstanding talent in Karting and he still is one of the best racers in the junior series.
 
Last edited:
Renault seem quite keen on him though. They are already linking him with filling in for Buemi in Formula E and I think if he smashes it for Dams in F2 this year they might give him a shot.

Fingers crossed anyways.
 
Because we have a lot of Palmer is a bit meh/shit on this thread I thought I'd post a positive. This is his first lap in Australia and threading it between two cars a few corners in is pretty awesome.

F1
 
Renault have now acknowledged that Palmer's problems in Melbourne were down to a problem with the rear anti roll bar. This isn't really surprising; Palmer is a quick driver, and as a GP2 champion deserves his place in F1 just as much as any of the other drivers out there!
 
Hello Jolyon,

It's Rutherford calling to tell you it's not just the car. It's mainly your inherent lack of talent.
Please stay at home. Thanks in advance.

Regards.
 
Renault have now acknowledged that Palmer's problems in Melbourne were down to a problem with the rear anti roll bar. This isn't really surprising; Palmer is a quick driver, and as a GP2 champion deserves his place in F1 just as much as any of the other drivers out there!
It did take him four years to win the championship and albeit the performance difference between the teams in GP2, he was with fairly decent teams in his GP2 years. Furthermore he was beaten by all of his teammates up until his championship win and Kral, Ericsson and Nasr aren't consider to be top notch drivers.
 
Back
Top Bottom