Jolyon Palmer, Comma’s sponsored driver since the beginning of his single-seater racing career in 2007, has achieved his life’s ambition to follow in his father’s tyre tracks and become a Formula 1 driver.
24-year-old Palmer’s reward for a record-breaking 2014 season – when he won the GP2 championship with the DAMS team – was to understudy Romain Grosjean this year as reserve driver in the Lotus F1 team.
As Grosjean departs for the newly formed Haas team at the end of this season, Jolyon will graduate in 2016 to drive alongside Venezuela’s Pastor Maldonado who will be embarking on his third season with Lotus F1.
“I’m obviously delighted that I’ll be racing in F1 next year,” said Jolyon. “I’ve enjoyed and learned a lot from my year as Lotus’s reserve driver so I’m looking forward to putting this into practice as a race driver in 2016. I can’t wait for the season to start.”
Jolyon’s father and manager, Jonathan Palmer, who raced in Formula 1 from 1983 to 1989, sent a warm message of appreciation to Comma, saying: “Thanks for your vital help to get him here.”
Comma Spokesperson Mike Bewsey expressed the delight of everyone at Comma. “This is a great day for us all and we send Jolyon our sincerest congratulations” he said.
“We’ve supported and followed Jolyon throughout his career, and he’s always done us proud, representing Comma and carrying our colours with great sportsmanship, honour and record breaking success. Well done Jo! We couldn’t be more proud and pleased for you.”
Mr Bewsey went on to emphasise the importance Comma attaches to its long-standing motor sport programmes. “They’ve always been central to our technical, product development and promotion activities,” he said.
“We provide our distributor partners and their independent workshop customers with exactly the same engine oils, coolants and maintenance products that we race, because we know of no more demanding and convincing proof of their fitness for purpose.
“It’s also why we have no hesitation in backing every recommended Comma product application with a unique 100% guarantee of quality and compatibility, and gives real meaning to our promise that ‘confidence comes from within’.”
Comma’s motorsport programmes include sponsorship of Jolyon’s younger brother, Will, who recently broke all the series’ records to win the 2015 BRDC Formula 4 championship and earn immediate nomination for the internationally prestigious McLaren ‘Autosport’ award.
Comma continues its technical and product supply partnerships with BRDC Formula 4 and the DAMS GP2 team, as well as the world renowned PalmerSport corporate driving experience at Bedford Autodrome, where the fleet of 100+ race-tuned high performance track cars run exclusively on Comma engine lubricants, coolants, brake fluids and maintenance chemicals.
Collectively, they cover over 2 million miles a year on the red line limits of their performance potential. “It’s like having our own private test track and ongoing product assessment facility for everything we supply into the aftermarket,” says Mr Bewsey. “There’s nothing else like it in the world.”
