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Jolyon Palmer targets reliability and qualifying-pace as Renault's main problems

Jolyon Palmer targets reliability and qualifying-pace as Renault's main problems

30-04-2019 18:38
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Nicolás Quarles van Ufford

According to former Renault driver Jolyon Palmer, Nico Hülkenberg would be good enough to fight for a title if he got given "a top car", with the German's former teammate explaining reliability and qualifying pace are currently the main things letting the French team down.

Palmer shared the Renault garage with Hülkenberg for the bulk of the 2017 season, until the Brit got replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr. Hülkenberg has often been hailed as the best driver in midfield. Palmer goes a step further than that to explain how good The Hülk really is.

"Hulkenberg is still grossly underrated," Palmer writes in his column for BBC Sport. "He takes an easy jab because of the fact that he's never stood on an F1 podium, but he's been performing at the highest level in midfield cars for years.

"I was his team-mate in 2017 and I know exactly how good he is. If he got himself into a top car, he would certainly be good enough to fight for a title."

When analysing what exactly is going wrong for the French works team, Palmer singled out two parts of the RS19 that stand out in a negative way.

"Unbelievably, they have the second slowest average qualifying pace in the field so far, ahead of only Williams, who have all sorts of problems of their own.

"Admittedly, it is very close, with just over 0.3 seconds separating their car - the ninth-fastest - from Haas, the fourth-quickest, and there are some extenuating circumstances.

"But Renault have made third qualifying in only one race out of the four so far - in China, where both cars edged to the front of the midfield.

"Qualifying pace isn't Renault's only concern, though. Reliability has been very weak as well in the opening stages of the season.

"Both cars retired with engine failures in Bahrain when in positions to score points. Hulkenberg lost a chance of points in China as well with another engine issue.

"Further problems with both cars in qualifying in Bahrain, and for Hulkenberg in Australia, have hampered progress as well and left them with a lot of work to do on race day."