Jean-Eric Vergne, the former Toro Rosso driver, and Kevin Magnussen, the young Dane ditched by McLaren, are also in the running. Renault favour a French driver but are not totally wedded to the idea, one source said.
Palmer, from Horsham, Sussex, has endured a frustrating year with mileage in practice sessions painfully limited. The son of former F1 driver Jonathan Palmer had to sit out almost the entire morning in Hungary after Lotus were late paying Pirelli and were not given their tyres.
Stevens replaced fellow Englishman Max Chilton this year as Manor was reborn from the ashes of Marussia. With the cars miles off the pace, the driver from Rochford, Essex, has had little chance to impress on track.
His manager, Glenn Beavis, told Telegraph Sport: “We are currently in negotiations over 2016 and hope to sort out Will’s future by the end of the season. Will thoroughly enjoys working with the team and hopes to continue next year, so we hope to conclude a successful outcome all round.”
Jean-Eric Vergne is looking for a drive
Now Manor have secured Mercedes engines for 2016, and expect to be significantly more competitive, they believe the value of their seats has increased. The cost of a pay drive in Formula One was also inflated after Marcus Ericsson and Felipe Nasr paid a combined £25 million for the two Sauber seats.
Stevens faces competition from Pascal Wehrlein, the Mercedes protégé who recently won the coveted German touring car championship. Stoffel Vandoorne, this year’s GP2 champion, and American Alexander Rossi, who will race for Manor on Sunday in Austin, Texas, are also in the frame.
Wehrlein said he hopes to know in the “next two or three weeks”. Toto Wolff, the Mercedes boss, added he was not prepared to push the German into the seat “at any price”.
Speaking recently to Sky Sports about his chances of remaining in Formula One, Stevens said: “I’m not contracted, but in terms of the usual questions I am going to get asked ‘is Wehrlein coming or is he not?’ honestly I don’t know.
Pascal Wehrlein is highly thought of
“As I have said all year we are in a good position, we are talking to them at the minute and everything is moving in the right direction. We will see what happens next year, but at the moment we are happy with where we are at and what we are doing.
“Most contracts these days have things which make it easier to work long-term – it is pretty much the way everyone does them these days.
“Obviously being my first year I wanted to get as much longevity to it as I could and that is why I say we are in a good position if we want to mutually work together again next year. There are two seats left and we are in a good position and will wait and see what happens in the next few weeks.”