Palmer was educated at Brighton College and trained as a physician at Guy's Hospital in London. He subsequently worked as a junior doctor at Cuckfield and Brighton hospitals. It was only after years of combining motor racing with medicine that he opted for a full professional driving career.
Palmer pursued Formula Ford from 1978 to 1980 before winning the British Formula 3 Championship in 1981, a result that earned him a Williams Formula One test drive in 1982. The following year he won the European Formula Two Championship and was awarded the British Racing Drivers' Club Gold Star.
Palmer joined Williams as a test driver for the 1982 and 1983 seasons and made his Formula One race debut at Brands Hatch on 25 September 1983, driving a Williams in the European Grand Prix. He moved to the RAM March team in 1984, then to Zakspeed for 1985 and 1986, before joining Tyrrell for the 1987, 1988, and 1989 seasons.
His career-best result came in the 1987 Australian Grand Prix, where he finished fourth. That year Palmer also won the Jim Clark Trophy — a championship within a championship awarded to the highest-placed driver of a normally aspirated car, which existed only for the 1987 season when turbocharged machinery remained dominant. He collected 14 World Championship points from 83 Formula One starts. At the end of 1989 he signed as McLaren's test driver, ending his frontline racing career.
Alongside his single-seater career, Palmer competed in the World Sportscar Championship at the wheel of a Group C Porsche between 1983 and 1990. He won the 1984 1000 km of Brands Hatch with co-driver Jan Lammers, and achieved second place at the 1985 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside James Weaver and Richard Lloyd.
Palmer's relationship with McLaren extended to the development of the McLaren F1 road car. He drove an example to a then-world record for a production car of 231 mph at the Nardo test track.
In 1991, Palmer became a pit lane reporter for the BBC Formula One commentary team. Following James Hunt's death after the 1993 Canadian Grand Prix, Palmer moved into the commentary box as a co-commentator alongside Murray Walker, a role he held until the BBC lost Formula One broadcast rights at the end of 1996.
Palmer founded PalmerSport in 1991 to run corporate motorsport events, initially at Bruntingthorpe airfield and later at the purpose-developed Bedford Autodrome, which opened in 1999. He launched the Formula Palmer Audi Championship in 1998 as a cost-effective alternative to Formula 3; inaugural champion Justin Wilson went on to win the Formula 3000 title.
In 2004, Palmer, John Britten, and Sir Peter Ogden acquired the Brands Hatch, Oulton Park, Snetterton, and Cadwell Park circuits from Octagon under the umbrella of MotorSport Vision (MSV). MSV subsequently acquired the commercial rights to the British Superbike Championship and operated the FIA Formula Two Championship from 2009 to 2012. Snetterton underwent a near-total redesign in 2011, and MSV acquired Donington Park in 2017. In September 2022, MSV won the bid for Circuito de Navarra in Spain. Palmer serves as majority shareholder and Chief Executive of the group, which also runs the GB3 and GB4 championships.
Palmer's son Jolyon, the 2014 GP2 Series champion, competed in Formula One with the RenaultSport F1 Team in 2016 and 2017 and subsequently became a commentator and columnist. His younger son Will Palmer won the BRDC F4 Championship and the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in 2015.
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