Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRenault

New chassis for Palmer at Spanish GP

Jolyon Palmer will get a new chassis at the Spanish Grand Prix following recent handling problems with his Renault.

The rookie was complaining about the handling of his car since the Australian Grand Prix, with his performance at the Chinese Grand Prix - where he finished last of the 22 runners - leading to what Palmer described as a debrief which "wasn't pretty".

While the problem remained on Friday in Russia, Renault changed the floor on Palmer's car which appears to have resolved the issue, but he will also be first to try a new chassis in Spain.

"Jolyon was much happier in his car on Saturday in Sochi and this translated to a stronger performance over the weekend," chassis technical director Nick Chester said. "As part of our assessments to get his car to work better for him we changed the floor, which is a very important aerodynamic aspect of the car. This looks to have delivered what we wanted so a positive step was made.

"For Spain Jolyon will run with a new chassis – R.S.16-03 which we used at our filming day this week to shake down."

Palmer himself is hopeful the work done in Russia will prove the floor was the cause of his recent troubles.

"If I’d been asked [about being happy with the progress] at the end of Friday in Sochi, I’d have said no as that day certainly wasn’t going my way," Palmer said. "However, the team changed the floor of my car on Friday night and for Saturday onwards the balance felt normal and consistent again, which was a positive for the rest of the weekend and hopefully looking forward too."

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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.