Back in 2016 and 2017, British racer Jolyon Palmer was competing for the French Renault team — but not all was well. Having only scored one point in his breakout season, he knew he needed a stellar year to compensate.

What Palmer didn’t expect, however, was finding out that he’d been replaced before the US Grand Prix — not from the team, but from the media.

Palmer: “I was reading my own downfall on Autosport”

Formula 1 drivers are no strangers to mid-season sackings or demotions — but not every firing is created equally.

Look no further than 2024, where Daniel Ricciardo was unceremoniously dropped by VCARB after the Singapore Grand Prix. Fans were deeply frustrated that the fan-favorite driver didn’t have a chance to say goodbye on his way out the door.

Back in 2017, Renault driver Jolyon Palmer faced a very similar fate.

Palmer hails from something of a British racing dynasty, with his father Jonathan Palmer managing many of the UK’s most prominent tracks. He won the GP2 Series in 2014 and looked set to debut in Formula 1 soon after.

He did so in 2016 with Renault — first beside Kevin Magnussen in 2016, then alongside Nico Hulkenberg in 2017. Unfortunately, compared to his teammates, Palmer was underperforming.

In 2016, for example, Palmer scored just one point compared to Magnussen’s seven. In 2017, a sixth-place finish in Singapore was the sum total of Palmer’s top-10 finishes; meanwhile, Hulkenberg had already clocked six points-paying finishes.

The writing was on the wall, but it’s safe to say Palmer didn’t expect to learn about the demise of his career in Autosport.

More on Jolyon Palmer:

👉 Where are they now? The last 10 F1 drivers to be sacked during the season

👉 The four Formula 1 pundits who should replace Damon Hill at Sky F1

That’s right. On an episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, Palmer revealed the shocking way he learned of the end of his F1 career.

“My brother sent me a message and was like ‘oh, have you seen this,’ and it was Autosport: ‘Sainz to replace Palmer,’” the Briton recalled.

“I was like, ‘what?!’ Genuinely, that was the first I’d heard of it. I was at home and I clicked on it.

“I was really reading my own downfall on Autosport.”

Palmer wasn’t totally unaware of the fact that things weren’t going well at Renault. He admitted that he didn’t expect to continue on with the team beyond the 2017 season, though he hoped he’d have a chance.

“I actually had a great run in Spa when I was faster than Hulkenberg,” he explained.

“I just didn’t expect to read about my own demise.”

Making matters worse, his team was nowhere to be found as the news began to spread.

“I thought someone from the team was going to see and reach out, but no one did,” he said.

“I came out to Singapore in the press conference on Thursday and our head of media was like, ‘Are you good to go up?’

“I told him ‘No! There is no way I could face the world’s media before someone tells me what is conclusively happening here.’”

That weekend in Singapore, Palmer scored his only points-paying finish of the season, but it was too little, too late. He remained with the team through Malaysia and Singapore before he was replaced by Carlos Sainz Jr. at the US Grand Prix.

But in Singapore, Palmer was at a loss.

“There was no sign of Cyril [Abiteboul], no sign of management,” he said.

“I was thinking let’s have a sit down and at least tell me to my face what’s going on.

“Eventually, Cyril came over and told me, but the whole year was handled in a pretty bad way.”

Palmer speculated on why he was left in the dark for so long, telling Beyond the Grid that “the Autosport story probably came before Renault were ready, but you’d think I’d hear from my boss to tell me whether it was true or not. I had to force the conversation so it left a bad taste.”

Palmer went on to admit that, once he was clued into what was happening, he did feel a sense of relief. He’d had a challenging two years, but it was coming to an end.

In the aftermath, Palmer found his footing as a pundit, working for BBC Sport, Channel 4, and F1TV.

Read next: 12 F1 drivers we still can’t believe won a Grand Prix