At the Japanese Grand Prix, it was announced that Carlos Sainz Jr. would replace Palmer for the rest of the season beginning at the next Grand Prix in Austin. In the race, he was running comfortably in the points for the majority of the race, when a failure in the DRS mechanism of his car, meant he had to retire from the race. In their time together as teammates Hülkenberg scored 34 points to Palmer's 8 points and outqualified Palmer in all 16 races.