Renault F1 team found cause for Palmer's Australian GP problems

Jolyon Palmer says Renault traced his struggles in the Formula 1 season opener to a rear anti-roll bar problem and hopes the team can start afresh in China

The Briton crashed heavily in Friday practice in Melbourne and failed to finish the race after reporting a problem with the brakes sticking on.

Speaking soon after the chequered flag in Australia, Palmer said he wanted Renault to check his car ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix, and has now revealed the team quickly identified the problem.

"About a couple of hours after the race, we realised there was an issue with the car and it was quite clear really that there was one problem," Palmer told reporters in Shanghai.

"It was an issue with the rear anti-roll bar from Saturday onwards. It wasn't working properly."

Palmer's FP2 crash was part of a tough weekend that included a gearbox-related problem in first practice and failing to progress from Q1 when a fuel surge left him with one run on ultra-softs.

But Palmer is relieved Renault has found there was a problem with the car and he is motivated to turn things around from this weekend.

"It put my mind to rest quite quickly, so for me it's a completely clean slate here," he said.

"I was feeling something wasn't quite right with the car but I lost the feeling from Friday to Saturday.

"So when we pinpointed something wasn't working, you can clear your head and focus on when the car was good and what Nico [Hulkenberg] was doing and focus on a car that is good enough to score points here.

"It was a tough weekend but I feel we've learned from all those mistakes and they are quite simple things to fix and we can start from scratch now.

"It's like the first round for me, this one."

Despite the tough start to his second F1 season, Palmer is hopeful of a stronger weekend in China and believes Renault has the capacity to develop quickly and become more competitive.

"In Melbourne, points were possible," he said.

"Last year, we struggled a lot in the early season but by the summer break onwards, we were able to get to Q2 more, we were able to fight around the fringes of points.

"If we can keep that development from where we started this year, then the second half of our year can be much stronger."