Renault hoping Palmer renaissance will continue at Monza

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Renault is hoping that the improvement in form demonstrated by Jolyon Palmer at Spa-Francorchamps will carry over to this weekend's Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

"He was like a different guy," Renault's trackside operations director Alan Permane said of Palmer's performance last week. "It was very good. It was undoubtedly his best weekend of the year.

"He's gone from being five or six tenths behind Nico to three or four tenths in front of him," Permane told Autosport magazine. "Up until the race, where Nico [Hulkenberg] was back on top of things."

Unfortunately, Palmer's budding Spa weekend suffered a setback when he was hit by a five-place grid penalty for a gearbox change after qualifying.

"I hope that race hasn't dented him and we can just go to Monza and he can carry where he left off," Permane commented. "He was loving driving the car. He didn't really make any changes, he was happy with it all weekend."

The penalty meant Palmer started the Belgian Grand Prix from 14th place on the grid. Ultimately, he was only able to pick up a single position during the afternoon.

"It was just a case of being stuck in traffic for much of the race," Palmer explained afterwards. "I had some good fights though. They were fun. But it's a shame not to have anything to show for it.

Hulkenberg to Renault: 'Keep that development coming!'

"If I had started seventh then I would have been in a position to score points, but down in fourteenth on the grid was hard.

"It’s positive, though, and I’m happy with the first race back [after the summer break]. It would have been nice to get points but it has been a better weekend than in previous weeks.

"We need the same again in the next few races," Palmer added. "It will happen, I just need to shake off the bad luck. Things are looking much better."

Palmer is keenly aware that his race seat is under threat from the likes of Robert Kubica and Nicholas Latifi. However, the 26-year-old British driver says that he has to put that aside when it comes to each Grand Prix.

"I've had this pressure for a year and a half and it's always the same," Palmer told Autosport, insisting: "I'm not bothered.

"I'll do the same for Monza. Turn up, try and get a great result and not even focus on Singapore, the future, the past or anything."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.