Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

Renault expects Palmer to deliver in rookie year

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Renault expects Jolyon Palmer to deliver for the team in his first season of racing in F1 despite his rookie status.

Palmer joined Lotus as third driver last season and took part in a number of Friday practice sessions before being promoted to a race seat for 2016. The 2014 GP2 champion replaces Romain Grosjean, and with Pastor Maldonado also losing his drive it means Palmer has the most experience of working with the current team following its takeover by Renault.

New team principal Frederic Vasseur says Palmer has shown he has all the assets required to be a success and expects him to hit the ground running this season.

"Jolyon goes from being the Third Driver for a private team to becoming the Race Driver for a manufacturer team and the driver with the most experience with the team," Vasseur said.

"He has a very mature head on his shoulders and we know from his 2014 GP2 Series title that he can deliver against the very best on track. It’s a rookie year for Jolyon, but we’ve seen that rookies can deliver so we are happy with the line-up we have behind the wheel."

And Vasseur admits the team itself will need to also produce results as quickly as possible despite expecting a tough first season as it rebuilds.

"We know the road map and we have to deliver in the next three or so seasons. The first is to build up the team as one organisation and be sure that everyone works together well.

"Our first priority is to ensure everything goes smoothly. I don’t want to focus only on the process, I know we have to build to success too and we’ll have to deliver quickly. There’s plenty to do."

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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.