Renault F1 driver Palmer expected even tougher 2016 season
Renault driver Jolyon Palmer admits he expected the 2016 Formula 1 season to be even tougher given the team's lack of preparation
The late completion of Renault's takeover of the ex-Lotus F1 team and the need to adapt a car that was designed to take a Mercedes engine means that he expected the team to be less competitive.
Renault finished ninth in the constructors' championship, scoring eight points - six of those for Kevin Magnussen's seventh place in the Russian Grand Prix.
"I thought it would be harder than it was in terms of car performance, even though that sounds strange because we've been struggling," Palmer told Autosport.
"We both got into Q2 in [the first race of the season] Australia and I never thought that would be possible at the start of the year.
"I'd been around the team all winter and there was nothing going on in the factory in December, it was a ghost town.
"It was only once the deal got done that we could start building the car, and in F1 if you start on the back foot it's difficult to recover in a year."
The Renault drivers progressed into Q2 13 times between them during 2016 and Palmer was surprised still to be able to fight midfield teams in the closing stages of the campaign, as he finished the season strongly.
"To be in a position where we could fight with McLaren, Haas and Toro Rosso regularly over the second half of the year showed the progress," he said.
"In the first half of the season, we were miles behind all of them."
Palmer believes that the pain of 2016, during which he only finished in the points once with 10th place in October's Malaysian GP, will pay off as Renault gets stronger.
By securing a second season as a race driver with Renault, he believes he hit his personal objectives for the year, which means he could be in a position to get strong results as the team gets more competitive in the seasons ahead.
"This is what I wanted at the start of the year - to still be with Renault in 2017 and make sure we finished ninth in the constructors' championship," said Palmer.
"This is the team that can be going places and fighting for wins and titles in the future so it's an opportunity for me.
"I've just got to keep proving myself so they keep their faith in me and then I'll be in a great position to achieve what I want to in F1."
Honda to follow Mercedes' philosophy with McLaren's 2017 F1 engine
Williams F1 team's Claire Williams puzzled by 'pay driver' slurs
Norris: Imola F1 podium still "blows my mind" given McLaren's pace
Lando Norris says his third-place finish at Imola still "blows my mind" given McLaren's pace compared to its Formula 1 rivals, calling it "one of my best podiums."
Ferrari's F1 2022 engine gains greatest for more than 25 years
Ferrari's engine gains for the 2022 Formula 1 season are the greatest it has managed in more than 25 years, according to team principal Mattia Binotto.
Date set for 2023 F1 Australian Grand Prix
Organisers for the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix have confirmed its early-season dates for the 2023 edition of the event.
Vettel: F1 should reinvest profits into race promoters to have greener events
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel thinks Formula 1 should reinvest some of its revenue into helping its race promoters put on more sustainable events.
How a bad car creates the ultimate engineering challenge
While creating a car that is woefully off the pace is a nightmare scenario for any team, it inadvertently generates the test any engineering department would relish: to turn it into a winner. As Mercedes takes on that challenge in Formula 1 this season, McLaren’s former head of vehicle engineering reveals how the team pulled of the feat in 2009 with Lewis Hamilton
The under-fire F1 driver fighting for his future
Personable, articulate and devoid of the usual racing driver airs and graces, Nicholas Latifi is the last Formula 1 driver you’d expect to receive death threats, but such was the toxic legacy of his part in last year’s explosive season finale. And now, as ALEX KALINAUCKAS explains, he faces a battle to keep his place on the F1 grid…
The strange tyre travails faced by F1’s past heroes
Modern grand prix drivers like to think the tyres they work with are unusually difficult and temperamental. But, says MAURICE HAMILTON, their predecessors faced many of the same challenges – and some even stranger…
The returning fan car revolution that could suit F1
Gordon Murray's Brabham BT46B 'fan car' was Formula 1 engineering at perhaps its most outlandish. Now fan technology has been successfully utilised on the McMurtry Speirling at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, could it be adopted by grand prix racing once again?
Hamilton's first experience of turning silver into gold
The seven-time Formula 1 world champion has been lumbered with a duff car before the 2022 Mercedes. Back in 2009, McLaren’s alchemists transformed the disastrous MP4-24 into a winning car with Lewis Hamilton at the wheel. And now it’s happening again at his current team, but can the rate of progress be matched this year?
Why few could blame Leclerc for following the example of Hamilton’s exit bombshell
OPINION: Ferrari's numerous strategy blunders, as well as some of his own mistakes, have cost Charles Leclerc dearly in the 2022 Formula 1 title battle in the first half of the season. Though he is locked into a deal with Ferrari, few could blame Leclerc if he ultimately wanted to look elsewhere - just as Lewis Hamilton did with McLaren 10 years prior
The other McLaren exile hoping to follow Perez's path to a top F1 seat
After being ditched by McLaren earlier in his F1 career Sergio Perez fought his way back into a seat with a leading team. BEN EDWARDS thinks the same could be happening to another member of the current grid
How studying Schumacher helped make Coulthard a McLaren F1 mainstay
Winner of 13 grands prix including Monaco and survivor of a life-changing plane crash, David Coulthard could be forgiven for having eased into a quiet retirement – but, as MARK GALLAGHER explains, in fact he’s busier than ever, running an award-winning media company and championing diversity in motor racing. Not bad for someone who, by his own admission, wasn’t quite the fastest driver of his generation…