Esteban Ocon will drive Jolyon Palmer's new Renault chassis during first practice at the Spanish Grand Prix.
GP3 champion Ocon was named as Renault's reserve drive at the start of the year despite being under contract to Mercedes on a long-term development deal. He will take part in the second FP1 session of his career in Spain -- he also drove the Lotus E22 during first practice at Abu Dhabi in 2014 -- and will then drive the car again during the two-day test at Barcelona after the grand prix.
Renault racing director Fred Vasseur said Renault is keen to give track time to a number of young drivers after Sergey Sirotkin also got an FP1 outing in Russia.
"We saw Sergey Sirotkin do a very good job in FP1 in Russia and we will see Esteban Ocon take to the wheel in Barcelona," Vasseur said. "Just this week we had Nicholas Latifi complete a vital part of his programme by driving a 2012 Formula One car, the E20, at Silverstone. Beyond that, we have the Renault Sport Academy, most of whom will be in action in the support categories in Spain."
After changing the floor on Palmer's car in Russia, Renault is set to give him a new chassis for the Spanish Grand Prix.
"Jolyon was much happier in his car on Saturday in Sochi and this translated to a stronger performance over the weekend, technical director Nick Chester said. As part of our assessments to get his car to work better for him we changed the floor, which is a very important aerodynamic aspect of the car. This looks to have delivered what we wanted so a positive step was made. For Spain Jolyon will run with a new chassis -- R.S.16-03 which we used at our filming day this week to shake down."