William Palmer (born 15 February 1997) is a British former racing driver. He is the son of Jonathan Palmer and brother of Jolyon Palmer. He is a past winner of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award.

Palmer won the BRDC F4 Championship in 2015 having previously won the 2014 BRDC Formula 4 Winter Championship.

Career

Ginetta Juniors (2011-2013) A successful 2013 season saw Palmer finish third in the 2013 Ginetta Junior Championship.

BRDC Formula 4 (2013-2015)

Palmer competed in the BRDC Formula 4 Winter Championship in 2013, ahead of graduating to the category for 2014. A promising debut full season in BRDC F4 saw Palmer take two wins and finish sixth in the 2014 overall standings. He followed that up by winning the F4 Winter Championship, taking four wins from eight races. He was nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award and he was named the winner at the Autosport Awards.

2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award

After his record-breaking BRDC F4 season, Palmer was nominated for the 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award alongside Jack Aitken, Ben Barnicoat, Jake Hughes, Ricky Collard and Toby Sowery. After two days of assessments at Silverstone, Palmer was named the winner at the Autosport Awards in London, receiving the prize of £100,000, a McLaren F1 test, Arai Carbon helmet and BRDC membership.

After the end of the 2016 season, Palmer received his McLaren F1 test for winning the 2015 McLaren Autosport BRDC Award, impressing the team throughout with McLaren simulator test engineer Alice Rowlands commenting that Palmer should be "very happy" with his maiden run in a Grand Prix car. "It's not easy," she added, "he doesn't know anyone and it's a step up from anything he's done before, working with this many engineers. Looking at the data it was clearly someone driving a Formula 1 car properly - not someone that was out for a little afternoon drive around."

Formula Renault 2.0 (2016-17)

For 2016, Palmer graduated to race in Europe and competed in both the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 championship and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern European Cup for the R-ace GP team. He scored five podium finishes over the course of the season and claimed his maiden victory in European racing as he took the chequered flag in the penultimate race of the Eurocup season at Estoril in Portugal.

In December 2016, it was announced that Palmer would continue with R-ace GP for the 2017 championships. He finished as runner-up to Sacha Fenestraz with wins at Silverstone, Monza and Monaco and another seven podiums.

GP3 Series In April 2018, Palmer signed with MP Motorsport for the final season of the sport. He only made one round as he retired from racing in June 2018 to focus on his studies and his work.

Racing record

Career summary Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2011 Ginetta Junior Championship Hillspeed 6 0 0 0 0 46 18th Ginetta Junior Winter Series 4 0 0 0 0 0 NC 2012 Ginetta Junior Championship HHC Motorsport 18 0 0 0 0 170 12th Ginetta Junior Winter Series 3 0 0 0 1 70 3rd 2013 Ginetta Junior Championship HHC Motorsport 20 1 4 3 10 406 3rd BRDC Formula 4 Winter Championship 8 1 1 0 2 131 5th 2014 BRDC Formula 4 Championship HHC Motorsport 24 2 0 3 7 356 6th BRDC Formula 4 Winter Championship 8 4 0 7 7 239 1st 2015 BRDC Formula 4 Championship HHC Motorsport 24 12 10 14 15 592 1st Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 ART Junior Team 3 0 0 0 0 0 NC† 2016 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 R-ace GP 15 1 0 1 2 76 7th Formula Renault 2.0 NEC 12 0 0 0 3 126 13th BRDC British Formula 3 Championship HHC Motorsport 3 0 1 1 1 39 25th 2017 Formula Renault Eurocup R-ace GP 23 3 1 1 10 298 2nd Formula Renault NEC 3 0 0 0 1 0 NC† 2018 GP3 Series MP Motorsport 2 0 0 0 0 0 25th † As Palmer was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points.

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 DC Points2015ART Junior Team ALC1 ALC2 ALC3 SPA1 SPA2 HUN1 HUN2 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 NÜR1 NÜR2 LMS1 LMS2 JER1 JER2 JER3 NC† 0 2016R-ace GP ALC1 ALC2 ALC3 MON1 MNZ1 MNZ2 MNZ3 RBR1 RBR2 LEC1 LEC2 SPA1 SPA2 EST1 EST2 7th 76 2017 MNZ1 MNZ2 SIL1 SIL2 PAU1 PAU2 MON1 MON2 HUN1 HUN2 HUN3 NÜR1 NÜR2 RBR1 RBR2 LEC1 LEC2 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 CAT1 CAT2 CAT32nd298

† As Palmer was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 NEC results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 DC Points 2016 R-ace GP MNZ1 MNZ2 SIL1 SIL2 HUN1 HUN2 SPA1 SPA2 ASS1 ASS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 HOC1 HOC2 HOC3 12th 126 2017 R-ace GP MNZ1 MNZ2 ASS1 ASS2 NÜR1 NÜR2 SPA1 SPA2 SPA3 HOC1 HOC2 NC† 0

† As Palmer was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points

Complete GP3 Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Entrant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Pos Points 2018 MP Motorsport CATFEA CATSPR LECFEA LECSPR RBRFEA RBRSPR SILFEA SILSPR HUNFEA HUNSPR SPAFEA SPASPR MNZFEA MNZSPR SOCFEA SOCSPR YMCFEA YMCSPR 25th 0

References

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