Jolyon Palmer hopes to end his point-less start to life in Formula 1 by picking up his first top 10 finish in this weekend’s British Grand Prix.
2014 GP2 Series champion Palmer joined Renault at the beginning of the season, racing alongside Kevin Magnussen following the French manufacturer’s takeover of Lotus.
However, the Briton is yet to score any points in F1, recording a best finish of 11th in his opening nine races, coming in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
Palmer has reached the second stage of qualifying just one so far in F1, finishing 17th or lower in all of the Saturday Q1 sessions since the opening race of the year.
Heading to Silverstone for his first home grand prix, Palmer has two key targets: reaching Q2 again, and then scoring points – his belief being that one will lead to the other.
“I think for us we’ve been quite close [to Q2],” Palmer said.
“[In] Montreal I was only 0.015s off Q2, it was really close. Austria as well we were OK but then we had a red flag and struggled to get the last set of tires on.
“We’re not far away. Hopefully this weekend we can find that last bit.
“Once you’re in Q2, you’re starting a few places higher, you’ve got more chance of scoring points.
“They’re the two aims: to get into Q2 and score some points.”
Palmer is relishing the opportunity to race an F1 car in front of his home fans for the first time, being one of three British drivers on the grid at Silverstone this weekend.
“It’s huge. My first British Grand Prix, a race I’ve been looking forward to since the start of the year really,” Palmer said.
“So a track I know really, really well, I’ve been racing here for a long time. And I love the track as well. The layout is awesome, lot of fast corners. You need a lot of commitment but I really enjoy it.
“And then the crowd, which is every year fantastic here. Been coming here myself for many years and now to be racing Formula One here is going to be pretty special.
“So I’m looking forward to it.”
