Palmer hoping Renault upgrade will turn his season around

Only Kevin Magnussen had the upgrade in Monaco, where Palmer had a fraught weekend that culminated in a heavy crash in the race.

"I think after six races it's been difficult, but hopefully we've got the most difficult bit out of the way," Palmer told Motorsport.com.

"I've got the engine upgrade that Kev had last weekend, and I'm hoping this weekend can be the start of an upturn.

"Overall I'm enjoying Renault taking over the team, even though we've gone backwards from Lotus in terms of performance, the energy in the team is really good, we've got resources, and everyone is working flat out, because we want to improve a lot.

"With Lotus we had a quicker car but we were completely stuck with what we could do with it. Everything is very positive here, and even though things are difficult, long term I think we're in a good position."

Palmer admitted that his problems in Monaco were in part a result of trying too hard to make up for the power disadvantage to his team mate.

"I really love Monaco but I think I was overconfident and pushing too hard, and it really bites when you do that.

"I've won twice in Monaco in GP2, so I've always got on well with the track. But I had a two tenths disadvantage, and I think I was trying to overcompensate, trying to push hard and be very competitive.

"And you can't really do that in Monaco, you've got to let the track come to you more, and get through the weekend.

"It was quite big incident in the race, and being with the team last year and this year as well you realise there are a lot of people working on two cars, so when you stick one in the wall heavily it's not a very good feeling."

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