Jonathan Palmer

Jonathan Palmer

Born	7 November 1956 Lewisham, London, England
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1983–1989
Teams	Williams, RAM, Zakspeed, Tyrrell
Entries	88 (83 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	14
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	1
First entry	1983 European Grand Prix
Last entry	1989 Australian Grand Prix

Jonathan Charles Palmer (born 7 November 1956)^[1][2] is a British former Formula One racing driver. Also a doctor, he briefly practiced medicine before he opted for a career in motorsport.

Active in Formula One between 1983 and 1989, Palmer drove for Tyrrell, Williams, RAM, and Zakspeed. He won 14 Championship points from 83 starts.

He also raced a Group C Porsche in sports car events between 1983 and 1990, most notably winning the 1984 1000 km of Brands Hatch with co-driver Jan Lammers and taking second place at the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans with co-drivers James Weaver and Richard Lloyd.

Palmer helped develop the McLaren F1 road car, and drove one to a new speed record for production cars.

He is currently the majority shareholder and chief executive of MotorSport Vision, a motor sports organization.

Racing career

Early career

Educated at Brighton College, Palmer dovetailed his medical studies at Guy's Hospital with club racing in an Austin Healey Sprite and Marcos. He practised as a doctor at Cuckfield and Brighton hospitals before opting for a driving career after Formula Ford success in 1978–80. Progressing to Formula Three, he won the 1981 British Formula 3 Championship, next achieving international single-seater success as 1983 European Formula Two Champion. His rapid ascent through the ranks landed him a Williams Formula One test drive in 1982 and BRDC Gold Star the following year.

Formula One

Palmer driving for Zakspeed at the 1985 German Grand Prix.

Palmer made his Formula One debut at Brands Hatch on 25 September 1983, driving a Williams in the European Grand Prix. He finished 25th out of 30 starters. Moving to the Skoal Bandit RAM March team in 1984, his six finishes yielded one 8th place, three 9th, one 10th, and one 13th. He joined Zakspeed in 1985, starting in eight races and retiring from all except the 1985 Detroit Grand Prix, where he finished 11th. Sixteen starts with the same team in 1986 resulted in eight retirements and a best finish of 8th in Detroit.

In 1987, Palmer talked with McLaren boss Ron Dennis about becoming the team's No. 2 driver to double World Champion Alain Prost. Dennis ultimately signed Stefan Johansson, and Palmer joined Tyrrell a week before the season’s opening race in Brazil. Although outpaced by its turbocharged competitors, Tyrrell’s normally-aspirated Cosworth-powered car proved reliable, and it was nimble on tighter circuits. Palmer won championship points in three races, and it was in the Australian Grand Prix that he achieved his career-best fourth-place finish. He also won the Jim Clark Cup, a championship for drivers of normally aspirated cars. He stayed with Tyrrell for the next two seasons, during which his best results were two 5th-place finishes and three 6th. At the end of 1989 he signed as McLaren’s test driver.

Sportscars

Between 1983 and 1990 Palmer also competed in the World Sportscar Championship at the wheel of a Group C Porsche. With co-driver Jan Lammers he won the 1984 1000 km of Brands Hatch, and in 1985 came second at [1985 24 Hours of Le Mans|Le Mans]] with co-drivers James Weaver and Richard Lloyd.

Post F1

A season in the British Touring Car Championship for the Prodrive BMW team followed in 1991 but by now Palmer's main focus was on his business interests with the formation of PalmerSport, which specialises in corporate driving activities. In addition Palmer had joined the BBC F1 commentary team as a pitlane reporter and, following the sudden death of James Hunt from a heart attack shortly after the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, Palmer was promoted to the commentary box alongside Murray Walker. The partnership lasted until the end of the 1996 season, when the BBC lost the rights to broadcast F1. Palmer then joined the CBC for annual commentary of the Grand Prix of Canada, starting in 1997. The other races used the ITV commentary on TSN.

Road car development

Palmer’s work with McLaren included development of the McLaren F1 road car, and he drove one to a record-breaking 231 mph at the Nardo test track.^[3] In addition, he helped develop the Caterham 7 JPE.

Business career

Having acquired the lease to develop Bedford Autodrome, Palmer opened it in 1999 as four separate circuits with a total of six miles of track. It is used for trackdays and testing, as well as for PalmerSport corporate driving activity. Also in 1999 Palmer launched the Formula Palmer Audi Championship, which provided a lower cost alternative to Formula 3. Inaugural champion Justin Wilson won a fully funded season in Formula 3000, and with Palmer managing his career, a then-unique share issue in the driver was launched after he won the F1 feeder formula, which helped him secure a drive with Minardi. Formula Palmer Audi has also helped shape the careers of drivers who include triple World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx.

In 2004 Palmer, together with business partners John Britten and Sir Peter Ogden, acquired the Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park circuits from Octagon, under the umbrella of MotorSport Vision (MSV). The company, of which Palmer is Chief Executive, also co-ordinated and ran the Formula Palmer Audi Championship, before acquiring the commercial rights for the British Superbike Championship. Also that year, MSV secured the right to operate the FIA Formula Two Championship. In addition, the company introduced and runs the BRDC Formula 4 Championship, an affordable and competitive single-seater series for young career drivers. MSV also administers several club series and championships under the MSVR banner, and organises MSV Trackdays.

Personal life

In addition to his business interests, Palmer has also helped develop the racing careers of his two sons: Jolyon Palmer, the 2014 GP2 Series champion and current F1 driver; and Will Palmer, who won the BRDC F4 Championship in 2015.

Racing record

Complete European Formula Two Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	Pos	Pts
1982	Ralt Racing Ltd.	Ralt	Honda	SIL 15	HOC Ret	THR 11	NÜR 14	MUG 5	VAL 5	PAU 6	SPA 6	HOC Ret	DON 3	MAN Ret	PER DNS	MIS	9th	10
1983	Ralt Racing Ltd.	Ralt	Honda	SIL Ret	THR 3	HOC 1	NÜR 4	VAL 2	PAU 3	JAR 3	DON 1	MIS 1	PER 1	ZOL 1	MUG 1		1st	68

Complete Formula One results

(key) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Pts
1983	TAG Williams Team	Williams FW08C	Cosworth V8	BRA	USW	FRA	SMR	MON	BEL	DET	CAN	GBR	GER	AUT	NED	ITA	EUR 13	RSA		NC	0
1984	Skoal Bandit Formula 1 Team	RAM 01	Hart Straight-4	BRA 8	RSA Ret															NC	0
		RAM 02				BEL 10	SMR 9	FRA 13	MON DNQ	CAN	DET Ret	DAL Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT 9	NED 9	ITA Ret	EUR Ret	POR Ret
1985	West Zakspeed Racing	Zakspeed 841	Zakspeed Straight-4	BRA	POR Ret	SMR DNS	MON 11	CAN	DET	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER Ret	AUT Ret	NED Ret	ITA	BEL	EUR	RSA	AUS	NC	0
1986	West Zakspeed Racing	Zakspeed 861	Zakspeed Straight-4	BRA Ret	ESP Ret	SMR Ret	MON 12	BEL 13	CAN Ret	DET 8	FRA Ret	GBR 9	GER Ret	HUN 10	AUT Ret	ITA Ret	POR 12	MEX 10	AUS 9	NC	0
1987	Data General Team Tyrrell	Tyrrell DG016	Cosworth V8	BRA 10	SMR Ret	BEL Ret	MON 5	DET 11	FRA 7	GBR 8	GER 5	HUN 7	AUT 14	ITA 14	POR 10	ESP Ret	MEX 7	JPN 8	AUS 4	11th	7^†
1988	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 017	Cosworth V8	BRA Ret	SMR 14	MON 5	MEX DNQ	CAN 6	DET 5	FRA Ret	GBR Ret	GER 11	HUN Ret	BEL 12	ITA DNQ	POR Ret	ESP Ret	JPN 12	AUS Ret	14th	5
1989	Tyrrell Racing Organisation	Tyrrell 017B	Cosworth V8	BRA 7																25th	2
		Tyrrell 018			SMR 6	MON 9	MEX Ret	USA 9	CAN Ret	FRA 10	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 13	BEL 14	ITA Ret	POR 6	ESP 10	JPN Ret	AUS DNQ

^† 1st place in the Jim Clark Cup, for naturally aspirated cars. ^[4]

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1983 in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded 1983 all races, 1983 in class)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	DC	Pts	Class
1983	Cheylesmore BMW Motorsport	BMW 635CSi	A	SIL	OUL	THR	BRH	THR	SIL	DON	SIL	DON	BRH	SIL 5					30th	2	14th
1991	BMW Team Finance	BMW M3		SIL 7	SNE Ret	DON Ret	THR 6	SIL 11^1	BRH 6	SIL 5	DON 1 4	DON 2 3	OUL 5	BRH 1 7	BRH 2 6	DON Ret	THR 2	SIL 21	7th	66

1. ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Pos	Class	No	Team	Co-Drivers	Chassis	Tyre	Laps
						Engine
1983	8	C	14	Canon Racing GTi Engineering	Jan Lammers Richard Lloyd	Porsche 956	?	339
						Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6
1984	27 DNF	C1	14	GTi Engineering	Jan Lammers	Porsche 956	D	239
						Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6
1985	2	C1	14	Richard Lloyd Racing	James Weaver Richard Lloyd	Porsche 956 GTi	G	371
						Porsche Type-935 2.6 L Turbo Flat-6
1987	30 DNF	C1	15	Liqui Moly Equipe	James Weaver Price Cobb	Porsche 962C GTi	G	112
						Porsche Type-935 2.8 L Turbo Flat-6
1990	DNS	C1	8	Joest Porsche Racing	Bob Wollek Philippe Alliot	Porsche 962C	M	–
						Porsche Type-935 3.0 L Turbo Flat-6
1991	20 DNF	C2	8	Team Sauber Mercedes	Stanley Dickens Kurt Thiim	Mercedes-Benz C11	G	223
						Mercedes-Benz M119 5.0L Turbo V8

References

1. http://grandprix.com/gpe/drv-paljon.html
2. http://www.espn.co.uk/ram/motorsport/driver/1090.html
3. "McLaren F1 review". Car Magazine. Retrieved 13 July 2015.
4. http://www.f1db.com/f1/page/Jonathan_Palmer

External links

• MotorSport Vision
• Brighton College Hall of Fame
• GP Encyclopedia
• Palmer Sport