F1 End of Season Report: Rate the Grid - Jolyon Palmer

Paul Jeffrey · Dec 11, 2017

Rate the Grid is back, this time with now unemployed former Renault Sport F1 driver and second generation Grand Prix star Jolyon Palmer under the spotlight...

Palmer was something of Formula One's invisible man during his year and a half as a factory Renault driver, never really seeming to feature in a Grand Prix unless it was recovering his car from tricky situations (or all too often the wall), and generally not doing enough to impress the powers that be when the all important decision to renew driver contracts came about towards the end of 2017.

Having been comprehensively out performed by team mate Nico Hulkenberg during his 37 starts for Renault Sport F1, Palmer would find himself unceremoniously dumped from the French team in favour of Toro Rosso refugee Carlos Sainz Jr. prior to the US Grand Prix, potentially signalling the end of a professional Formula One career at just 26 years of age.

Although Palmer never really shone in the sports top flight the driver does come with pedigree, son of former Grand Prix racer Dr. Jonathan Palmer and winner of the GP2 series in 2014, what happens now for the likeable British driver remains to be seen.

Vote now to tell us how you rate the 2017 season for former Renault F1 driver Jolyon Palmer, and leave a comment below!

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CMGARAGE · Dec 11, 2017

He's the hero F1 deserves, but not one it needs right now.

3/10

MoerasGrizzly · Dec 11, 2017

I don't think I can say anything more then Renault hasn't already said.

Nick Gregory · Dec 11, 2017

I said I rate him higher than Ericcson, so he gets a 2.

Jimlaad43 · Dec 12, 2017

Maurits Vernel · Dec 12, 2017

Slowest driver on the grid. Likeable fellow, but being nice is not good enough for a F1 career. I actually wish he'd had done better. I do feel somewhat sorry for him.

stbreaker · Dec 12, 2017

I don't think he was as horrible as everyone makes him out to be. He was really unlucky in that he stumbled into a throw away year last season and started off this one under immense pressure as a result. Combine that with a series of reliability problems and he just lost confidence in the car.

Hor-hay · Dec 12, 2017

0 because that's how many points he usually scores.

Esploratore · Dec 12, 2017

Yes, a bad season in general, but also bad reliability, at least for the time he's been racing, far worse reliability than hulkenberg, a good race, singapore, which however gave him a good result because of other's retirements, including his teammate which was in front, and another weekend where he was going well, spa, but ruined due to a problem in qualifying, he was beating hulkenberg.

Hence I gave him 4, he wasn't there in general but I think kvyat and ericsson were just as bad and stroll not much better.

Jan Larsen · Dec 12, 2017

2. Just waaay in over his head.

wombat999 · Dec 12, 2017

Seems to be a thoroughly nice bloke but that doesn't count for anything in 'EffWunWorld'.
I was amazed that he even had a second season.
Father Johnathon must have had some influence but he was sadly lacking in talent back in his day.
Only rated a 2.

ale85bg · Dec 12, 2017

Well he spent a year and a half in F1 and he won a Championship, so... 8/10.
Oh wait, are you saying that the "2016 Grill the Grid Championship" doesn't count? Oh well, in this case...

apex11 · Dec 12, 2017

Like Erricson (sic) in the Mercedes could of got top 5's maybe scraped a few podiums such was the Merc dominance....but alas Bottas is barely good enough based on his results in the Merc and he's won a few races!!

Point is, yes he's rubbish. Its almost like he had a rich Daddy behind him who could pull some strings.....

Sky · Dec 12, 2017

So underwhelming i forgot who sainz replaced.

Andrew Harper · Dec 12, 2017

Yes he did seem out of his depth but I'll give him a little bit of slack as the car was unreliable and also difficult to drive most of the time.

If you don't get seat time it's very difficult to catch up with the others. Unlike the days of thousands of laps of testing when I feel a driver was slightly better prepared when reliability issues strike during the weekend.

I was surprised when he was given a second chance with the team, but he was unable to make the most of it.

Whether it was true I don't know but I understand the team wanted him out by the third race but his dad (who's also his manager) wouldn't accept the deal. I think it took a large sum of money to get the contract cancelled later in the year.

Not good enough for F1 unfortunately.

Hope he finds a series where he's happy though. He looked bloody miserable at times! Lol

Enzo Fazzi · Dec 12, 2017

Highlight of his season was him f*cking off, that's why I voted for the 10.

Fat Rich · Dec 12, 2017

He has driving talent but it doesn't seem to work in F1 cars. Hopefully he'll find success in another category.

Yapci · Dec 12, 2017

I think that he did a kvyat but without crashing that much. Few bad results and lot of pressure may have made impossible for him to recover/show his real talent.

You got to be good enough to make it to F1 (yes there are paid drivers but...they are somewhat good enough, although they aren’t the greatest) but it’s when you are there when you got to show you make the difference.

That’s what I feel Sainz, Ocon, Ric, Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso do. The rest are pretty “normal” in what they do. Few flashes some weekends but not consistent under pressure (Vettel, Kimi, Perez, Pascal...)