With the future of Jolyon Palmer's Formula 1 career being called into question, Chris Soulsby looks at Palmer's season so far and if he is worthy of a place in the crown jewel of Motorsport.

With the Renault Formula 1 Team stating that they are expecting to reveal their 2017 driver line up in early September, one man looking to make his mark at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix will be Britain’s Jolyon Palmer, with the F1 rookie facing questions over his future in Formula 1 in recent races.

A Game of Roulette: Jolyon Palmer and His Formula 1 Future

Back in March, the season opening Australian Grand Prix marked the Formula 1 debut of Jolyon Palmer. In qualifying, Palmer out qualified his more experienced team mate, Kevin Magnussen, and in the race, he finished in eleventh place- just outside of the points paying positions. If you ask me this was a very strong debut for a rookie driver. Palmer was consistently faster than his team mate, and very nearly finished in the points in his first Formula 1 race. So much so, I named Palmer as my driver of the day.

However, this was back at the first race of the season, and the 2016 Formula 1 Season is now well under way, with this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix marking the thirteenth race this year. Palmer’s eleventh place finish in Australia remains his highest finishing position in Formula 1, facing a further eleven races of disappointment.

Palmer’s second highest finish so far this season came at the Hungarian Grand Prix, where the Brit finished in twelfth place. In an underpowered and uncompetitive Renault, twelfth place isn’t a bad finishing position by all means. However, at this race, Palmer had the opportunity to finish in the points, running inside the top 10 with only 21 laps to go. But what happened? Driver error. Palmer gave away his points paying position through driver error, spinning his car at turn 4 unaided. This isn’t the typical mistake that you would see a Formula 1 driver make, thus promoting questions of the Brit’s capabilities, with Sky Sports F1’s Johnny Herbert stating: “If he doesn’t learn from this, it’s goodbye.”

Maturely, Palmer did admit that he was at fault:

“I’m gutted because it was there. Obviously it’s a disaster. It was the best drive of my career but then I spun and we didn’t get any points. It should have been the first points of my F1 career. Everything was perfect” the Brit said. “It was completely in my grasp. We did a good strategy, a good pit stop, and the pace was good. I felt great in the car. But then I just lost it. I don’t know why. I wasn’t exactly hanging everything out, I was looking after the tyres with Nico Hulkenberg behind, but then for some reason I lost the car with a massive snap. I need to look at it now.”

However, despite this, Palmer is still confident that he will remain in Formula 1, with names such as Esteban Ocon being linked to his place at Renault. Although he did make a rookie mistake in Hungary, his performance was encouraging, running inside the points with ease until his dreaded spin at turn 4. But is this confidence really what Palmer needs?

Absolutely.

Formula 1 is a tough sport and if a driver doesn’t do a good job, he can quickly find himself slipping down the grid- Daniil Kvyat is an example of that. Palmer needs to be confident in himself and in his own abilities. He needs to be positive and he needs to fight for his place in F1.

As we have seen, Palmer is good enough to race in Formula 1, being so close to finishing inside the top 10 on two occasions this season in an uncompetitive car. Not only this but he has beaten Kevin Magnussen often over the course of this season, with Magnussen already being experienced after driving for McLaren in 2014 and in the first race of the 2015 season. Before his debut, Palmer has also proved that he is talented enough, becoming the 2014 GP2 champion in a hotly contested fight for the title between himself and Sauber’s Felipe Nasr.

As 2016 is a development year for Renault, the Enstone outfit need two drivers that can take their team further up the grid for the 2017 Formula 1 Season. But will Jolyon Palmer be one of these drivers? Only time will tell.

Should Jolyon Palmer be one of these drivers?

I think so.

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