Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Palmer deal received Renault approval

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Jolyon Palmer says Renault approved the decision from Lotus to promote him to a race seat in 2016.

It was announced on Friday afternoon in Austin that Palmer will replace Romain Grosjean next season, as Grosjean is moving to the new Haas F1 Team. With Palmer getting the nod after a year as Lotus’ third and reserve driver, it means a rookie will line up alongside Pastor Maldonado in 2016.

Having told F1i he was working on two scenarios to try and secure a seat with the team, Palmer confirmed Renault needed to give its approval to the decision to hand him the drive.

Asked if Renault had to rubber-stamp the move, Palmer replied: “Yep, exactly, with both parties happy.

“It came very much between the two, so it was with the Lotus bosses initially when we didn’t know so much about the Renault deal and then it was with the Renault side as well to say ‘yeah, we’re happy with that, we’ll stick you in the car’.”

With Renault yet to complete its takeover, Palmer concedes the uncertainty over the team’s future is difficult to manage but is sure it will be on the grid next year.

“Yeah, I’ve been feeling it. Since the summer break, it’s been very tough for the whole team. But I had faith with the Renault talks ongoing.

“I don’t really know inside the minds of the Renault bosses or even the shareholders here; whether there’s something, even if Renault doesn’t happen, maybe they’ve something else in their mind. So I just had to have faith that something was going to happen. The team’s too good not to be doing anything next year. I’m sure it will get picked up at some point.”

And Palmer admits he was surprised when Grosjean announced his intention to leave Lotus for Haas having expected the driver line-up to remain unchanged.

“I didn’t see it coming because with the [Renault] talks ongoing I thought it would be linked around him a little. I didn’t see it coming at all. But then it did, and suddenly it opened a door for me.”

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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.