Renault have made improvements this year in every department. Except one…

Renault came into 2017 with a lot of positivity. In their second season on the grid as a team, and with their own engine development and a raft of regulation changes, there was a feeling that they could go from the back of the grid in 2016 and compete in the midfield for points every week, if all went well.

At the quarter-mark of the season things are going pretty well for one half of the Renault garage. New driver Nico Hulkenberg, who came over from Force India in the winter, has scored 14 points, has qualified in the top 10 three times and brought the best out of the car every weekend. On the other side though, is Jolyon Palmer, who has had more trips into the wall than he has race finishes. Palmer is without a point this season, has retired twice, and been an expert at having accidents by himself. It’s time for Renault to pull the plug and say goodbye to Palmer.

Attitude

When drivers win, or just have a good week, they are quick to thank all those who put the car together, from the strategists on the pit wall to the guys in the factory that design the minute winglets that make all the difference.

With Palmer it’s different. I’ve never heard him thank those at Enstone who work so hard to develop the car. Instead, I’ve heard complaint after complaint. The balance isn’t right, the grip isn’t there, the downforce is all off. Every time he is off the pace it’s the fault of the machinery, not himself.

That attitude has not endeared himself to either the general public or those at Renault. Nor have his constant crashes. In Russia the team had to change his chassis on Thursday night and then his engine on Friday night. The reward for getting the car out on track without missing any time was a solo spin in qualifying. After rebuilding the entire back end and getting Palmer on the grid for Sunday he proceeded to fail to get to turn 3 on the first lap. Not much of a reward for the efforts of the race crew.

Pace

Palmer came into Formula 1 as a GP2 Champion. The series has produced champions such as Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton, Romain Grosjean and Stoffel Vandoorne, as well as his current teammate Nico Hulkenberg.

You’d think then, that with such a pedigree he would be up to the task of competing with the midfield, but instead Palmer has been a disaster. So far this season Palmer has been an average of 1.655 seconds off the pace of Hulkenberg in qualifying. While a big chunk of that comes from a disastrous Australian qualifying, he is still yet to be within a second of Hulkenberg on a Saturday. That margin is extremely worrying, and is far and away the biggest between teammates this season.

Williams’ rookie Lance Stroll is around four-to-six tenths off the pace of his vastly more experienced teammate Felipe Massa, but he is continually optimistic and positive about his development. He is also only 18, Palmer is 26. If he doesn’t have the pace now there is almost no chance that he will ever have it.

While Hulkenberg was fighting for points and finished sixth in Spain this past weekend, Palmer finished 15th, dead last of the runners. It’s just not good enough.

Replacing him

This is where it gets tricky. One of the reasons Renault retained Palmer last year and let Kevin Magnussen walk was the financial benefits they get from Jolyon’s father Jonathan, from staff benefits such as days out in PalmerSport’s cars to allowing the team to use the Bedford Autodrome which is owned by Jonathan. It’s not so easy to replace that.

However, if the team are to achieve their aim of 6th in the Constructors’ Championship this season they need to get points out of the second driver. Nico is battling with Massa and Toro Rosso’s Carlos Sainz, and while Force India have seemingly cemented themselves in fourth, fifth remains wide open, and Stroll’s struggles mean Renault have to be applying pressure. Hulkenberg has finished ninth, eighth, and sixth in the last three races, and with an engine upgrade scheduled to come in June at the Canadian Grand Prix they have to start getting both drivers in the fight.

Who could step in?

That’s a problematic question. Renault have given the last two FP1 sessions to Russian 21-year-old Sergey Sirotkin, however technical issues in both sessions severely limited his running. Sirotkin finished third in GP2 in both 2015 and 2016 and seems to have some promise. However, they might be able to strike a deal with Red Bull to get their next youngster Pierre Gasly in the car as well. Another name getting thrown around is veteran Timo Glock, who has three F1 podiums to his name.

Whoever it is that comes in for Palmer, they could hardly do any worse than Jolyon has in his brief, yet too long, F1 career.