Palmer: Looking forward to a track I have won at before

Rookie Jolyon Palmer signaled his arrival in Formula 1 with an impressive debut at the season opening Australian Grand Prix, where his Renault team made a return as a fully fledged works team - the Briton spoke ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend.

How would you review your first race weekend as a Formula 1 driver?
Jolyon Palmer: I really enjoyed it. Everything went very smoothly. I had a good qualifying and then maximised the car in the race. I was happy with the race; I had a good start and was wheel to wheel for quite a long time, scrapping hard – it was great fun. I wanted to get to the finish, and you always dream of stealing a point, but I just missed it with P11, which is really frustrating! But we can definitely build on this. In Australia we didn’t have any more pace in the car, but it was an encouraging start.

Did your dad give you any tips?
JP: Not really! The only thing he kept saying was to drink – he kept repeating that I needed to say hydrated, but that was his only expert guidance! He let me get on with it…

How did you feel coming back to racing after a year out?
JP: It felt completely normal. The difference from GP2 to F1 is that there are bigger variables. People are on different tyres and strategies, so you have to work out whether you can realistically fight and keep position, but it was not a problem. I had some good battles and really enjoyed it.

And how have you found the team?
JP: I feel at home in the team. The team is operationally very good and we have more developments coming. The car is nicely balanced, the pace is good – all in all, it was a strong start, especially considering the takeover was completed just before Christmas. We have upgrades coming all the time and it should not be too long before we can fight for points consistently.