Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/838705
maltatoday, SUNDAY, 18 JUNE 2017 51 Sport FORMULA 1 Palmer must deliver, says Renault F1 boss RENAULT have warned Jolyon Palmer that his Formula One place is not assured and he has to start scoring points after drawing a blank so far this season. The Briton's German team mate Nico Hulkenberg has tak- en all Renault's 18 points from seven races while Palmer, in his second season with the team, has struggled. The 26-year-old, who scored only one point in a difficult 2016 debut year, has finished 11th in his last two outings, however. "No one is safe in F1," Renault Sport F1 managing direc- tor Cyril Abiteboul told the motorsport.com website when asked if Palmer was safe from the threat of being replaced and whether the team had an alternative. "F1 is not an environment where anyone can say loudly, 'I'm safe'. To a certain degree there are two questions. There is Jo, and there is a second driver. Right now my focus is on Jo. Jo has to deliver. "The fact is that Jo has a car which is a point-scoring car, and he has to enter into the points. Full stop." Renault are currently seventh in the championship and Abiteboul said he hoped to go into the August break, after four more races, having moved up to sixth. The Frenchman set a pre-season target of finishing the year in the top five with possible podium finishes. Hulkenberg has scored points in four races so far since moving to Renault from Force India at the end of last year with a best of sixth in Spain. He was eighth in Canada last weekend. "We see that there is a very substantial gap between Nico and Jo in qualifying, and in the race," said Abiteboul. "We are discussing on a regular basis obviously with Jo to see how he can improve." Renault tested their ex-driver Robert Kubica in Spain, with the Pole, who has not raced in Formula One since he partial- ly severed his forearm in a 2011 rally crash, making a good impression and doing 115 laps. They also have Russian Sergey Sirotkin as a development driver. Honda: Frustration doesn't mean McLaren divorce HONDA chief Yusuke Hasegawa insists that frustration-filled com- ments issued by either McLaren or the Japanese power unit supplier in the midst of its difficult campaign does not mean a divorce is on the cards. McLaren-Honda, in the third year of its reunion, has endured a troubled opening seven rounds, amid a lack of reliability and per- formance, with the operation yet to score a point. McLaren was linked with a return to Mercedes power for 2018 earlier in the year before Zak Brown em- phasised that it was committed to Honda. However, McLaren has ramped up the rhetoric in recent weeks, claiming it has "serious concerns" over the manufacturer, and has formed a "Plan B and Plan C" for 2018. Following Fernando Alonso's late retirement in Canada, which re- moved him from a points-paying position, Brown commented that McLaren has to be "proactive" re- garding the future. Hasegawa, though, does not be- lieve the message given out by McLaren has altered since the problems arose during pre-season. "I don't think it [the attitude] has changed since the winter Barcelona test," Hasegawa told Racer. "They are all still frustrated, and of course we are frustrated as well. So Zak's comments are very under- standable. "We are frustrated and we are disappointed, so it's no wonder if they comment about something like that." "Of course good results will cheer the team up, but even in a difficult situation we have a very strong con- nection. "We are frustrated, but feeling frustration in the race does not di- rectly mean 'they want to divorce' nor 'ending the contract'. "The frustration in the race and the decision making for the rela- tionship are totally different mat- ters." Honda, which returned to For- mula 1 in 2015, will also supply Sauber with power units next year. Robbed of a first point two laps before the end of the Canadian GP by yet another engine failure