Lotus: Palmer to replace Grosjean in 2016?
Jolyon Palmer, current third driver for the Lotus team, is confident of securing a main driver position with the team in 2016. For this to happen, Romain Grosjean would need to announce his departure, likely to the new Haas F1 Team.
Having participated in numerous FP1 sessions since the beginning of the season by taking Romain Grosjean’s place in the Lotus, Jolyon Palmer’s situation might stabilize in 2016 since the Briton is leading the way to support Pastor Maldonado in a full-time role.
The person concerned seems quite confident about this outcome: “I still hope to race next year, so my goal is to show the team what I am capable of doing. I will have opportunities to do this, and from a broader perspective, the team is still fighting for fifth place in the championship with Force India and Toro Rosso. That remains the main goal even if it is challenging,” he stated to the BBC.
However, a possible starting position at Lotus in 2016 remains on hold as long as Romain Grosjean has not announced his departure to another team. While it seems imminent that the Frenchman and the new American team, Haas F1 Team, will announce their collaboration before the end of the month for the coming years, nothing is yet decided, and Palmer remains cautious: “I think the announcement from Haas will make things clearer. We will really know what is going to happen next week or in two weeks at the latest. It’s an important and crucial moment for the team.”
