Jolyon Palmer (North 2009) had had a difficult start to his F1 career after a promising debut drive at the Australian Grand Prix where he finished 11th. He had to retire three times in his next six outings – including a crash in the wet at Monaco – but bounced back with a 12th in Austria. He has consistently outperformed his Renault team-mate Kevin Magnussen.
Earlier in the season, Chris Medland of F1 Racing caught up with him and started by asking if his brother Will (North 2015) was faster than him.
“Absolutely not,” Palmer smiled. “But he’s got the best coach, which is me, so he might get somewhere near. But I’m definitely faster.” Asked if he was better than his father (F1 driver Jonathan Palmer who raced in 88 grand prix for a variety of teams in the 1980s), he replied: “I’m better than my dad as well. He usually accepts that. He hasn’t driven anything for a long time. I think he was good back in his day but there were a lot more cars in F1 at that time. he had aa good stint, I think he was quite happy, but I think I’m better.”
He said that biggest inspiration was Fernando Alonso. “He was a driver I looked up to when I was in GP2 because he was delivering the most from his car the whole time. He was rarely in the fastest car but he was managing to fight for championships.” And his father? “As a driver he didn’t inspire me because I was born after he stopped racing. There are more inspirational drivers than my dad. He did a good job but what Fernando did is probably more inspirational.”
What if he had not been a driver? “I’m a general sports fan so maybe something else in sport, but I’m so into racing that I haven’t given it much thought. I did a business degree, so maybe something in business or sporty business. Driver manager and football managers and agents get paid a lot of money, so that’s the way to go.”
Palmer does not have a coach, insisting he does not need one. “I’ve won GP2 and I’m intelligent enough to look at what other people are doing if they’re doing something better. I can read the data well and understand if I need to improve something.”
A number of teams have to contend with drivers who do not get on – the relationship between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes springs to mind – but Palmer said there is no such issue with Magnussen. “We get on reasonably well. He’s a relaxed guy, and we were in the same boat both having been out of racing last year. We’re both trying to impress to be in Renault’s long-term plans, so we’re working well together because we need to.”
Did he ever feel he might not make it all the way to F1? “It’s very tough. You’ve just got to work hard, don’t give up and make the most of any opportunity. There were many times when I thought I might not make it, but you’ve just got to keep the belief, do everything you can and, for me, that happened.”
