Jolyon Carlyle Palmer (born 20 January 1991) is a British former racing driver, broadcaster and journalist, who competed in Formula One from to . Since retiring from racing, Palmer has been a pundit for the BBC, Channel 4 and F1TV.
Prior to his media career, Palmer was a racing driver and the 2014 GP2 Series champion. Palmer drove for Renault Sport F1 Team in Formula One. He made his Formula One debut with the team at the start of the season, during which he scored his first World Championship points at the . Palmer stayed with Renault for through to the .
Palmer, the son of former F1 driver and major UK race circuit owner Jonathan Palmer, was educated at Dorset House School, after which he attended Cranleigh School and the University of Nottingham (from which he graduated with a bachelor's degree in Management Studies in 2012). He drove for the Lotus Formula One team as a test driver in 2015, stepping up to a full-time race seat the following season when the team received manufacturer backing from Renault.
After being dropped by Renault during the 2017 season, Palmer became an F1 analyst for BBC and the F1 app alongside Jack Nicholls. He is a regular columnist on the BBC Sport website and is also a special contributor to the official F1 website, hosting Jolyon Palmer's Analysis following each Grand Prix.
Career
T Cars (2005–2007) Having spent 2004 racing in MiniMax karts, Palmer moved up to cars in 2005 and specifically the T Cars championship's Autumn Trophy – a racing series for drivers between the ages of 14 and 17. Palmer finished fifth in that championship, with a grand total of 92 points, 46 behind championship winner Adrian Quaife-Hobbs. He moved up to the main championship in 2006, earning one pole position and four podiums, and again finished fifth in the championship with 101 points, 69 behind champion Luciano Bacheta. Palmer also took part in a second Autumn Trophy, winning four of the six races. He took part in two races of the 2007 season, winning both but decided to concentrate on Formula Palmer Audi.
Formula Palmer Audi (2007–2008) In 2007, Palmer moved to the series which his father, Jonathan, created nine years before. He finished 12th on debut at Silverstone, and his results gradually improved with him taking two wins (one at Brands Hatch and one at Oulton Park) and two pole positions at Brands, on his way to tenth in the championship. He missed the final two rounds of the championship, due to an abdominal injury suffered in a quad bike accident at his home in West Sussex, in which he nearly died as he lost a kidney, punctured a lung, suffered liver damage and lost a lot of blood.
Palmer recovered in time for the start of the 2008 season, in which he was a championship challenger right up until the last few races of the season. Palmer secured one win (at the overseas race at Spa) and 11 podiums along with three pole positions and ended up just 22 points behind Jason Moore, in third place. The Autumn Trophy and the FPA Shootout also brought third places for Palmer, taking three podiums from the six races.
FIA Formula Two (2009–2010) 2009 saw Palmer move up to the FIA Formula Two Championship, driving car number three. His best result was a sixth-place finish at Imola. He returned to the series in 2010, winning the opening race of the season at Silverstone, taking the first F2 win by a British driver since his father did so at Mugello in . Palmer picked up one fifth-place finish in the next round at Marrakech, but bounced back to take both wins and the championship lead in the third round at Monza. He eventually finished second behind fellow Briton Dean Stoneman.
Palmer made a one-off return to F2 during the 2011 season at the Nürburgring, but was a non-starter in both races.
GP2 Series (2011–2014)
2011 season
Palmer made his GP2 Series main season debut in 2011, driving for the Arden International team alongside Josef Král. He scored a top ten finish on his debut weekend at Abu Dhabi and more top ten finishes followed at Istanbul and Valencia. A move to the Barwa Addax team for the non-championship GP2 Finals saw a breakthrough on his return to Abu Dhabi, with third and fourth places to end his debut year in the category on a high.
2012 season
For the 2012 season, Palmer switched to the iSport International team, alongside Marcus Ericsson. Despite topping the first practice session of the year in Malaysia, persistent electrical problems blighted the early part of his season, precipitating a change of chassis. Results immediately improved and a sixth place at Monaco was followed by his maiden GP2 victory in the sprint race there. Next came a podium position at Silverstone, putting Palmer into the top-ten of the leaderboard as the season entered its second half, although he ultimately slipped to 11th despite another podium finish at Monza.
2013 season
For the 2013 GP2 Series, Palmer drove for Carlin, partnering Brazilian 2011 British F3 Champion Felipe Nasr. He scored his first win of the year in the Feature Race at the Hungaroring and took pole, fastest lap and the Feature Race win on the streets of Singapore, ending 13 seconds ahead of team-mate Nasr. Palmer qualified in the top-three in each of the final three events and finished seventh overall in the points table.
2014 season
Palmer switched to DAMS for the 2014 GP2 Series and topped the opening day of pre-season testing at Abu Dhabi. He qualified on pole for the first race of the season in Bahrain and finished on the podium. He won the Sprint Race the following day to lead the championship, a lead he held for the rest of the year and added another win in the feature race at Monaco.
At Hungary, Palmer prevailed in wheel-to-wheel contests with Felipe Nasr in both races, and tensions boiled over during the Sprint Race podium ceremony.
At Monza, Palmer was forced to start at the back of the grid for the Feature Race, after his DAMS car was found to have less than the mandatory one litre of fuel remaining, having originally qualified fourth. Despite this, he finished eighth in the Feature Race, securing reverse grid pole for the Sprint Race, which he won to further extend his championship lead.
Palmer clinched the championship at the first possible attempt, with a fourth win of the year at the new Sochi circuit in Russia. He won the title with three races to spare, and achieved an all-time points record in the series.
Speaking just after clinching the title, he said:It wasn't going to be easy to win the championship this weekend, especially today after missing out on pole yesterday. I can't thank the team enough, they've done an incredible job all year, we've been fighting for pretty much every Feature Race win and every pole with almost no mistakes. It feels amazing to be champion!The pressure is off us now and we've got another race tomorrow and another round at Abu Dhabi. We can go out now, enjoy it and have some fun!Looking through the list of previous GP2 Champions, they're all unbelievable drivers, and to be on that list is something which can't be taken away from me, it's an incredible feeling.
On 19 November, it was announced that Palmer would drive for the Sahara Force India F1 team at the Abu Dhabi post-season test on 25 November.
Formula One
Force India (2014) Palmer test drove a Force India car at the end of season test at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina Circuit on 25 November 2014.
Lotus (2015)
On 20 January 2015, it was announced that Palmer had signed as test and reserve driver for the Lotus F1 Formula One team for 2015, with 2010 GP2 champion Pastor Maldonado and 2011 GP2 champion Romain Grosjean as their official drivers.
Palmer made his debut in the team's 2015 challenger, the E23 Hybrid, on day two of the official pre-season test in Barcelona. Completing 77 laps, he ran a programme focused on data gathering and development work. He finished the day in eighth place. Lotus F1 Team's Trackside Operations Director Alan Permane said: "Today was about data accumulation and Jolyon did a great job in his first time in the car, especially with the particularly cold conditions to start the session in the morning."
Palmer went on to make his Formula One debut on a Grand Prix weekend as he took to the track in Free Practice One at the third round of the 2015 season in China. Palmer completed a packed schedule of aerodynamic and set-up work to finish in 15th place overall on his first visit to the Shanghai circuit.
In his next outing at the Bahrain International Circuit, Palmer ended the session in 14th position, 0.441s shy of teammate Pastor Maldonado. He drove in Free Practice One at the Spanish Grand Prix, recording the 13th fastest time and finishing ahead of Maldonado, before topping the timesheets on the second day of the in-season test in Barcelona on Wednesday 13 May. On 11 June 2015, it was announced that he would drive in Free Practice 1 for the rest of the European season, a total of five Grands Prix, which would take him from Austria to Italy, replacing Frenchman Romain Grosjean.
Palmer continued in FP1 in both Austria and Britain, his home Grand Prix, to finish in 14th position before suffering from limited running in Hungary. Palmer tested a new front-wing for Lotus F1 Team in the next Free Practice One session at Spa-Francorchamps, as Romain Grosjean came home third in the Belgian Grand Prix that weekend. Palmer took part in several further sessions, his final appearance in the Lotus E23 coming at the Abu Dhabi season closer, where technical issues limited him to just 10 minutes' running.
Renault (2016–2017)
2016 On 23 October 2015, Palmer confirmed his promotion to a full-time race driver for the Renault Sport F1 Team in 2016, and became the first driver from FIA Formula Two Championship alumni to progress to the Formula One team. He was joined by former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen for Renault's return to the sport as a constructor, having bought the Lotus F1 Team over the winter. At his debut event in the Australian Grand Prix, Palmer outqualified Magnussen to fourteenth, and after a good start finished the race eleventh ahead of his teammate, just outside the point scoring positions.
A car issue in the next races in Bahrain and China prevented Palmer from showing his true form but he bounced back in the Russian Grand Prix, finishing a strong 13th having started 18th on the grid. He repeated that result in the Spanish Grand Prix, coming home ahead of team-mate Magnussen. After an early exit in Monaco, a water leak put an end to his race in Canada before he finished the European Grand Prix in Baku, Azerbaijan, in a creditable 15th.
Palmer recorded his best result since the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as he came home in 12th in Austria before competing in his maiden home Grand Prix at Silverstone. That ended in disappointment as he suffered a suspected gearbox problem which led to his retirement on lap 38, but he produced a career-best drive next time out in the Hungarian Grand Prix as he narrowly missed out on a maiden points scoring finish in Formula 1, finishing 12th. An opening lap clash ended his German Grand Prix before he led the Renault charge at Spa-Francorchamps in the Belgian Grand Prix, coming home in 15th. Palmer's Italian Grand Prix came to a premature end as he once again led the way for the French manufacturer, as Sauber's Felipe Nasr hit the Brit and eventually forced his retirement from the race on safety grounds.
At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Palmer had his best result to date and claimed his first World Championship point. He finished tenth, 14 seconds behind Jenson Button's McLaren and three seconds ahead of Carlos Sainz in a Toro Rosso. On 9 November 2016, Renault announced that Palmer had extended his deal with them for 2017.
2017
Magnussen departed Renault at the end of the year for the newly created Haas F1 Team, and Nico Hülkenberg stepped in from Force India to replace him and be Palmer's teammate.