It is a fact that Formula 1 is very dangerous and it has been seen that most of F1 drivers come across the darkest events that are much closer to death. On talking with BBC Sport, Jolyon Palmer said, “It was pretty serious. It was particularly bad for my parents, who were told there was a chance I would not pull through.”
When Jolyon Palmer was 16 years old, his quad bike was crashed and he went in coma. At that time he lost a kidney, liver was damaged, lung got punctured and he lost plenty of blood. He said, “I was in a bad way. I was racing a couple of friends for fun. I was winning the race, but I looked over my shoulder, lost balance and hit a tree.” It was seen that Palmer’s next memory was of waking in a bed encompassed by doctors. He had been carried to hospital and was oblivious for three days. His guardians had even been advised to get ready for the most exceedingly bad.
He said, “The good thing for me is that I didn’t understand the peril. My first thought when I woke up was ‘damn it, I am going to miss the next race’. I can’t imagine myself in an office,” he said. “I’ve always wanted to be outdoors and doing something sporty.”
“My mum panicked about me getting back on a quad bike, but not a racing car,” he said. “If I had that crash in a single-seater, it would have scared her a lot more.”
“I never saw my dad race,” Palmer said. “He was in midfield a lot and they didn’t really show the midfield much. It was all about what Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were doing. They weren’t too fussed what Jonathan Palmer was up to.
“I watched more of his stuff from before he got into F1, in F3 and F2. That was more interesting because he was in a title fight.
“I’d been watching F1 since my earliest memories and karting for fun at a young age, but it was when I was 12 that I decided I wanted to get into F1.”
Ferrari was so dominant and it had got quite boring, but then along came Alonso and he beat Schumacher,” Palmer continued.
“I always support the underdog and I was cheering him on to win the championship. The car also looked incredible.
“There’s no doubt I was a huge Alonso fan at that point – and it’s a little surreal to think I will be racing him – but I won’t be thinking about that in the car.”
