Jonathan Palmer

For the American football player, see Jonathan Palmer (American football).

Jonathan Palmer

File:Jonathan Palmer Profile.jpg
Born	(1956-11-07) 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) is a British former Formula One racing driver, medical doctor, and now the majority shareholder and chief executive of MotorSport Vision, whose portfolio includes the Brands Hatch circuit in Kent, England, the PalmerSport corporate driving event at Bedford Autodrome in England, and the rights to the British Superbike Championship.

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 F1 debut at Brands Hatch on 25 September 1983, driving for the Williams team in the European Grand Prix. Signing up for the Skoal Bandit RAM March team in 1984, he scored several top ten finishes, before a move to the Zakspeed team for the following two seasons.

A switch to Ken Tyrrell's outfit for the 1987 season brought about a change of fortune. The normally aspirated, Cosworth-powered Tyrrell was outpaced by turbocharged cars but reliable and nimble on tighter circuits and Palmer took it to a string of points finishes, culminating in a career best of fourth in Australia. He won the Jim Clark Cup, a championship for drivers of non-turbocharged machines. Prior to the 1987 season Palmer was also in talks with McLaren boss Ron Dennis about becoming the team's No. 2 driver to dual World Champion Alain Prost. Ultimately Dennis chose former Ferrari driver Stefan Johansson for 1987 and it was not until a week before the opening race in Brazil that Palmer managed to sign a contract with Tyrrell.

Palmer stayed with the Tyrell team for the following two seasons before signing for McLaren at the end of 1989 as the team's test driver, alongside Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Palmer's work for McLaren included development of the McLaren F1 road car, which included a then record-breaking 231 mph run at the Nardo test track. His road car development work also includes a special edition Caterham 7 JPE, an extreme variant of the enduring sportscar.

Sportscars

In addition to his F1 career, Palmer competed with success in the World Sportscar Championship alongside many other Grand Prix drivers. Racing a Group C Porsche from 1983 to 1990, highlights included victory in the 1984 1000 km of Brands Hatch, and second place in the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans. He returned to Le Mans in 1991 with the works Sauber Mercedes-Benz team.

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.

Business career

The same year Palmer acquired the lease to develop Bedford Autodrome. Opening in 1999, this has four separate circuits and six miles of track, and is used for trackdays and testing in addition to the PalmerSport corporate driving activity. This coincided with further business ventures, including the launch of the Formula Palmer Audi Championship, which provided a lower cost alternative to Formula 3. Inaugural 1998 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, helping him to secure a drive with the Minardi team. Formula Palmer Audi has also helped shape the careers of many drivers, including triple World Touring Car Champion Andy Priaulx.

In 2004 Palmer, along 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 in 2008 and, in the same year, successfully tendering to operate the FIA Formula Two Championship. In addition, MSV introduced and runs the BRDC Formula 4 Championship, an affordable and competitive single-seater series for young career drivers; administers several club series and championships under the MSVR banner; and organises trackdays as MSV Trackdays.

Personal life

In addition to his business interests, Palmer has also helped develop the racing careers of his two sons: Jolyon Palmer is a race winner and GP2 Series champion and aims to follow in his father's footsteps into F1, whilst William is also winning races in his first full season in the BRDC F4 Championship.

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.

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	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	2nd	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

External links

• MotorSport Vision
• Brighton College Hall of Fame
• GP Encyclopedia
• Palmer Sport
• [1]

Sporting positions
Preceded by Stefan Johansson	British Formula 3 Champion 1981	Succeeded by Tommy Byrne
Preceded by Corrado Fabi	European Formula Two Champion 1983	Succeeded by Mike Thackwell
Awards
Preceded by John Watson	Autosport British Competition Driver of the Year 1983	Succeeded by Derek Bell
Preceded by Nigel Mansell	Autosport British Competition Driver of the Year 1987	Succeeded by Martin Brundle