Jolyon Palmer has completed almost 150 laps behind the wheel of Renault Sport Formula One Team’s R.S.17 around Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya this week, during the first major Formula 1 group test of the year.

Jolyon’s fastest lap time of 1:21.396s on the soft-compound Pirelli tyres placed him sixth out of 21 drivers on the end-of-week leaderboard.

Below are Jolyon’s comments from each of his three days in the car.

Tuesday:
“I’ve really enjoyed driving the car today. The downforce is a massive change; it’s completely different from last year. It takes a little bit of getting used to, but it’s actually a lot more enjoyable to drive. We had a productive afternoon with 53 laps. It’s just a shame not to have ran this morning, but we learnt a lot regardless.”

Wednesday:
“It wasn’t a perfect start on cold tyres first thing, but other than that we’ve made some really good progress throughout the week in terms of set-up. I feel happy with where we are, as it feels like we’re making steps forward every time we go out. The car seems straightforward to understand for the engineers and drivers, so that makes progress and development much easier than otherwise. I completed 51 laps this morning, which is satisfying and we’re constantly learning. I think that’s showing in the performance.”

Thursday:
“It was another good afternoon, even if I didn’t get much of a chance to try the wet tyres. We’ve continued to improve the car and that’s exactly what you want to achieve from pre-season testing. I think we can be really happy with where we’ve got to at the end of this first test, and we’re definitely looking positively to next week. The car is improving all the time in terms of feel and pace – with more to come than has been seen on the timing monitors so far.”

The next pre-season Formula 1 test will begin on Tuesday, 7 March, again in Barcelona.