Palmer: Renault "lifted" by recent success

Having scored his maiden F1 world championship point in Malaysia, Palmer thinks that stronger showings from the team in recent races have pointed to proper progress on track.

And he thinks that the situation should only improve as the outfit benefits from the revamp and staff expansion that is taking place at its Enstone headquarters.

"I think for the whole team everything's been lifted because we're now back in the points," said Palmer. "Definitely, I think we made good progress.

"I think there's a big change going on at Enstone, we've got lots more people coming in. The number of staff, I think, it's going to be a 100 more than there were at the start of the year.

"And the factory is expanding as well, so there's a lot of work going on there, good quality stuff as well. It takes time to really build it where we want, but you can see that that's happening.

"And also I think we're doing a good job with the race team, in understanding the car.

"It hasn't changed in terms of new bits to make it get much quicker, it's some little bits - but it's more just us getting a good handle on it and working really well to move from a sort of Sauber zone to a Toro Rosso/McLaren zone."

Silverstone breakthrough

Palmer believes that one of the keys that has helped Renault lift its game is the benefit that came from a change of suspension concept after the post-British Grand Prix test at Silverstone.

"I would still put it down to the Silverstone tests - I think we made a really good step," he said. "And we're constantly learning more about the tyres every race, doing a better job on them.

"There are some small updates, but nothing transforming. We're just doing every weekend a better job with what we've got. And we've gone from fighting Sauber and Manor sometimes even to fighting McLaren, Toro Rosso and Haas. So yeah there's definitely progress."

And he believes that one of the things helping him and teammate Kevin Magnussen deliver is that the Renault car is more consistent to drive.

"I think the fact we've improved the car and can work on the tyres better means that the car is probably more consistent to drive, I'd say," he said.

"Generally we're making fewer mistakes and we're able to extract more from it. And then you've also got the fact that we're now racing with the teams further up, we can fight with McLaren, fight with Toro Rosso, fight with the Haas, which is a better chance to show what we can do as well.

"It makes a difference with the strategy too, getting a long stint out sometimes. If what I did in Malaysia I'd done in Austria or Silverstone, nobody would've known, because probably I would end up 12th or 13th.

"Sure, it would have been okay, but the fact that we could beat the Toro Rosso in Malaysia was good, because I've got a point and people really noticed it."