Jonathan Charles Palmer (born 7 November 1956) is a British businessman and former Formula One racing driver.
Before opting for a career in motor racing, Palmer trained as a physician at London’s Guys Hospital. He also worked as a junior physician at Cuckfield and Brighton hospitals. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Jonathan Palmer’s early days saw him combining racing in club events while doing his medical studies and he eventually went on to race endurance sports cars plus contest seven Grands Prix seasons with Williams, RAM, Zakspeed and Tyrrell.
Born in Lewisham, London, on the 7th November 1956, his father was a GP and often took four-year-old Jonathan with him on house calls in his Peugeot 403. Sitting beside him he memorised car models and eventually “persuaded him to buy something faster and the cars to own in those days were Fords. He started with a Cortina Mk 1 GT. Then I managed to get him into a Lotus Cortina Mk 2, followed by a 3-litre Capri. It was terribly exciting going at 70mph in second gear.” After learning to drive at 14 he was allowed to park the Capri at night which saw him “blasting down the driveway to our garage. It often ended with a handbrake turn and a cloud of smoke. Then he bought me an old Morris Minor van to thrash around our field.” Despite there being no experience of motorsport competition within the family, in 1973 he went for a trial at Brands Hatch. Driving a Ford Escort Mexico, his instructor was “the legendary Syd Fox, who didn’t waste many words on my efforts. He wrote on his report ‘Too quick for first time but lots of potential 91%.’”
He went to study medicine at Guy’s Hospital in London but, keen to get into racing, sold everything he had to raise the money for a half share in an Austin Healey Sprite. Although he described it as ‘a pile of rubbish’ it got him started and racing the self prepared car (with David Mercer) he took three class wins plus two podiums at races at Brands Hatch. Moving on to a Marcos the following year saw him win his class in the BARC Modsports Championship plus take wins at Thruxton, Castle Combe and Llandow plus podiums at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch. In 1977 he repeated his class victory with the car in the Modsport Championship and was second overall with class wins at Silverstone, Cadwell Park, Brands Hatch and Mallory Park plus victories at Mallory Park, Thruxton, Donington Park and four at Brands Hatch. After these promising performances he moved into Formula Ford with a Hawke DL20, becoming a works driver from mid-season, and his best results were third at Thruxton and Donington Park and fourth at Silverstone. He continued in FFord in 1979 though now with a Van Diemen RT79 and had wins at Snetterton, Mallory Park, Cadwell Park (but missed several races after breaking his arm in a crash at Oulton park) though finished third in the Townsend Thoresen and P&O Ferries Championships. 1980 started with a works Royale RP26 though he later switched to West Surrey Racing’s Van Diemen RF80 and he was third in the Townsend Thoresen and fourth in the PO Ferries Championships. There were wins at Thruxton and Snetterton (twice) and a fourth place in the FFord Festival plus was third in the end of year prestigious Grovewood Awards.
During this time he had been a medical student at Guy’s Hospital and though he qualified in 1979 he realised he could not race and practice medicine so in 1981 took a sabbatical to race in Formula 3. The decision paid off as he won that year’s British F3 Championship in WSR’s Ralt RT3 with eight victories (at Silverstone, Thruxton, Mallory Park, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park and Snetterton) along with seven pole positions and ten fastest laps. There was a saloon car drive with Richard Lloyd in an Audi 80 in the Tourist Trophy and they took a class win but although he had the chance of a race drive in the British GP in a March 811 he turned it down.
In 1982 he moved up to F2 in a Ralt Honda, with his best finishes third and fifth at Donington Park and Mugello but he was hospitalised after rolling at Mantorp Park. There were two F2 outings at Suzuka, finishing third and eighth while in sports car outings he took fourth place in the Brands Hatch 1000km in a shared Ford C100 with Desire Wilson plus had a class win with Richard Lloyd’s Porsche 294 Carrera in the Spa 1000km.
The Ralt-Honda proved a winning combination the following year and he only missed the podium on two occasions. His six victories at Hockenheim, Donington Park, Misano, Enna, Zolder and Mugello plus podiums at Vallelunga, Thruxton, Pau and Jarama and fourth at the Nurburgring helped him beat team-mate Mike Thackwell to the Championship. As well as taking the Championship he had a successful year in sports cars, racing a Porsche at Le Mans, Brands Hatch and Daytona and his best results came with third places at Mugello and the Nurburgring 1000km, fourth in the Imola 1000km and fifth with Team Gunston at Kyalami. He also had a win in a Historic GT race at Silverstone when racing Peter Millward’s Lola Aston Martin. In a shared drive with James Weaver he was second with a BMW 635 CSi in the Tourist Trophy and drove the car to fifth place in a round of the British Touring Car Championship. His Le Mans debut that year in a Porsche 956 saw an eighth place finish with Richard Lloyd and Jan Lammers plus racing the 956 in 1000km races (with drivers including K.Rosberg, J.Lammers, D.Bell and H.Toivonen) he had podiums at Mugello and Nurburgring plus fourth and fifth at Imola and Kyalami. He had also been involved as a test driver with Williams and was given a race seat at the European GP at Brands Hatch alongside Keke Rosberg and Jacques Laffite in a third Williams FW08C. He out-qualified experienced team-mate J.Laffite and went on to finish thirteenth in the race and towards the end of the year was back in the cockpit of an F1 car when he tested an AGS plus also a tested a March 84C Indycar.
Although ready for a move into F1 his budget was very tight though he raised enough sponsorship to drive his first full F1 season with the Skoal Bandit RAM-Hart team. Racing alongside Philippe Alliot, it unfortunately proved a disappointing season with him failing to take a point and retiring from the half of the races while his best result was eighth in the Brazilian GP. He then switched to the German Zakspeed team for 1985 but they did not enter the flyaway races in Brazil, Canada, USA, South Africa and Australia and only raced in the European rounds. Their debut came in the second race of the season at Portugal and he took twenty third place in qualifying but a collision in the race caused terminal suspension damage. At his next race in San Marino, he qualified seventeenth but failed to take the start due to an engine misfire though Monaco saw the car’s first finish in eleventh place. Unfortunately this would be the team’s only finish in 1985, as a series of mechanical problems led to retirements in the next five consecutive races. He also had to miss the Italian GP after breaking his leg in a sports car accident at Spa and Christian Danner took his place for two races. Remaining with Zakspeed for the following season, he was teamed with Huub Rothengatter, but despite continued sponsorship from West cigarettes the team never employed a test driver as they were unable to afford one. The intention had been to continue with just one car for Jonathan but H.Rothengatter eventually joined and raced a second car from the third race onwards. Only 10 finishes were recorded by the pair during the year, with Jonathan’s best result eighth at Detroit while other finishes saw ninth in Australia and Great Britain, tenths at Hungary and Mexico, twelfths at Monaco and Portugal and thirteenth in Belgium.
His best opportunity came in 1987 when he joined the Data General sponsored Tyrrell team and raced the DG016 alongside Philippe Streiff. Two new sub-championships were created for that season, the Jim Clark Trophy for drivers with naturally aspirated engines and its parallel championship for constructors, the Colin Chapman Trophy. As well as Tyrrell, Larrousse, AGS, March and Coloni were in contention for the trophies as the other 11 teams were running with turbo power. He was fifth in Monaco (scoring points for the first time in his GP starts) and Germany then had a career best fourth in a race of attrition in the final round in Australia but had wrapped up the Championship in Japan to finish 21 points ahead of his teammate. They were the only team to run two ‘atmo’ cars for the entire season and dominated and in the context of the Jim Clark Trophy he actually won seven races, at Brazil, Monaco, Detroit, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan and Australia. Besides his team mate’s, other non turbo powered ‘victories’ were taken by Philippe Alliot (three) and two by Ivan Capelli. Remaining with them for another two seasons, Tyrrell introduced their 017 for 1988, still with Cosworth power, and he was teamed with rookie Julian Bailey. However, there would be disappointment after the performances in the previous year with Jonathan achieving the team’s only 5 points, taking fifth in Monaco and Detroit and sixth in Canada. Starting the following season in Brazil with a 017B, Jonathan took a good seventh place and by the time of the second race at San Marino Tyrrell debuted their 018. Team mate Michele Alboreto was given the car for qualifying but had problems with the fuel pump and failed to qualify. Jonathan qualified the team’s old 017B but raced the newer 018 instead and went on to take points with a sixth place finish. The rest of the season saw a number of retirements and alongside his sixth in San Marino his finishes included sixth in Portugal, ninth in America, tenths in France and Spain plus thirteenth and fourteenth at Hungary and Belgium. Jean Alesi had a number of races with Tyrrell that year and made a spectacular debut with fourth place in France but Jonathan would be eclipsed by his arrival. He did not retain his seat for 1990 but said of Alesi, he “was young and brilliant and basically he blew me away. That was the end of my F1 career.”
He stayed active in F1 after signing a three-year test driver contract with McLaren in 1990 plus raced in sports cars and saloons. He had originally spoken with Ron Dennis in 1987 about becoming the team’s second driver alongside Alain Prost but they ultimately signed Stefan Johansson. During his time with McLaren his work included development of the F1 road car and he drove one to a record-breaking 231 mph at the Nardo test track.
While in F1 he had also run in parallel in sports cars and in 1984 drove GT1 Engineering’s Porsche 956 to second at the Norisring Trophy plus teamed with Jan Lammers to take victory at Brands Hatch and podiums at Imola and Sandown Park. The following season saw a second place podium result at Le Mans with J.Weaver and R.Lloyd in their 956 and fifth place finishes at Monza and Silverstone (with J.Lammers) plus Hockenheim with David Hobbs. Unfortunately he missed a big part of 1985 after a serious crash at Spa in which he broke a right foot. In 1987 he co-drove with Mauro Baldi and there was victory in a Nurburgring 200 mile event plus fifth at at another Nurburgring event with the 956. There was a drive with Guy Edwards in 1988 in a Kaliber sponsored Ford Sierra to sixth place in the Tourist Trophy while in 1990 he did a full season with Joest’s Porsche 962 though results weren’t forthcoming and the best finishes were fifth in Mexico, eighth in Dijon and Montreal (with D.Hobbs) plus eighth at Monza with Tiff Needell. In three races the next year, two were with a Porsche 962, and he was eighth with Oscar Larrauri with Alpha Racing’s car at Sumo but retired Team Schuppan’s car with Eje Elgh. In a change to the regular Porsche drives he co-drove with Stanley Dickens and Kurt Thiim at Le Mans in a Sauber Mercedes C11 but despite qualifying fifth they retired from the race due to suspension problems.
His last season of racing came in 1991 and though his main involvement was in touring cars there was one drive with Jan Lammers in a Porsche 962 in the Japanese Championship, finishing sixth at Sugo. His main involvement came with Prodrive’s BMW M3 in the British Touring Cars Championship and he was seventh in the series, with best results second at Thruxton, third and fourths at Donington and fifth places at Oulton Park and Silverstone.
After retiring, he joined the BBC F1 commentary team, partnering Murray Walker, though lost the role when ITV took over the British F1 broadcast rights in 1997. He then focused on business, having already founded PalmerSport in 1991 to run corporate hospitality motorsport events, which ran for much of its first decade at Bruntingthorpe, a former RAF base in Leicestershire. He rented it on a day-rate basis but later scoured the country for an alternate venue and and in 1993 found a disused aerodrome near Bedford. After six years acquiring it, and getting planning permission, he developed it into Bedford Autodrome with support and financial backing from two friends, John Britten and Sir Peter Ogden. In 2004, MotorSport Vision acquired Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Cadwell Park and Oulton Park and later in 2017 acquired the Donington Park circuit. During this period he launched the Formula Palmer Audi Championship in 1998 as a less costly alternative to F3 and inaugural champion Justin Wilson went on to win the Formula 3000 championship, with Jonathan later managing his career. After starting at Oulton Park in May 1998, Formula Palmer Audi’s final race came in October 2010 at Silverstone, with 326 drivers having taken part in the 266 races over 13 successful seasons.MSV acquired the commercial rights for the British Superbike Championship and secured the right to operate the FIA F2 Championship from 2009 to 2012 and ran the BRDC British F3 Championship, as well as several other club series and championships under the MSVR banner.
His sons both had successful motor racing careers. Jolyon, the 2014 GP2 Series champion, drove for RenaultSport F1 during the 2016 and 2017 seasons and went on to be a commentator and columnist for BBC Sport F1. Younger son Will won the BRDC F4 Championship and the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2015, and finished second in Renault Eurocup in 2017 though stopped racing in 2018 to focus on his degree and a business career.
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