Oliver Rowland has said that the improved effects of Attack Mode in the GEN3 Evo cars has been “a breath of fresh air” for Formula E.
The Briton kickstarted his Season 11 campaign with a brilliant victory in the Mexico City E-Prix, utilising his attacks perfectly – albeit with a little help from the Safety Car – to snatch the win from the Porsches of Antonio Felix da Costa and Pascal Wehrlein.
In the first two races, the Attack Mode element, in which drivers must activate an extra 50 kilowatts in various increments of eight minutes within the race, has already seen an improvement in effectiveness due to the addition of all-wheel drive, with Mitch Evans using his in round one to win from last on the grid, as well as a myriad of drivers benefitting to gain several positions.
Rowland told Motorsport Week that in comparison to the initial GEN3 models of the car, the extra drive has changed things and has made it a more worthwhile tool.
“I think last year, Attack Mode in GEN2 was pretty OK,” he said. “You know, you could make some progress with it, but I think in the beginning of GEN3, the power wasn’t delivering the performance that we needed to really overtake and make a difference.
“But I think watching the race back from the weekend, it was actually a good motor race. You know, I think what it’s done is because it also allows the power to make a difference in terms of lap time, there’s none of this waiting around.
“As soon as someone activates Attack Mode, you kind of have to make the gain in lap time to extend your race, if that makes sense.
“So if you get the Attack Mode, and start going slowly, it’s going to trouble you because the others gain such a lap time effect, so I think not only has it opened up the overtaking side, it’s also opened up the strategy side of the race to avoid us from having these too much peloton style races.
“But for me, it’s great [but] it’s really hard to manage as a driver. Like, do you fight in the beginning? For example, I left my six minutes very late, but obviously come under pressure from many cars from behind and it’s strategically, it’s like, ‘do you use your energy to try and stay in front of these guys? Do you not?’
“I think that’s where these first five or six races are really going to shape the way we race throughout the season, but I think again, like Mexico was a good example, the slipstream is not super beneficial there, and the race was kind of more of a normal motor race.
“I think when we go back to tracks with the altitude, that doesn’t have the altitude so that the slipstream is not as effective, we might slip back into the peloton style racing, but I think the Attack Mode for me has been a huge breath of fresh air this year.
“You know, it’s fun, I was able to push that one lap flat out and get past a few people and yeah, it’s on the extreme side, but I think it’s pretty, also pretty interesting.”
Oliver Rowland ‘dreamed of’ Mexico podium opportunity
By taking the win, Rowland fulfilled a dream of standing on the podium at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, in-front of the Foro Sol stadium complex situation in the third sector of the circuit.
Rowland received rapturous cheers from the crowd, which was confirmed by Formula E to be a sellout.
“I’ve been going there for like six or seven years and I’ve always seen the crowd there,” he said. “I’ve heard the crowd, it’s always an incredible event, and I think I’d always kind of dreamed of being on that podium and to be there after the race and feel the energy from all the fans, it was quite surreal really.
“And then actually like coming home back to reality was a little bit strange, to be honest.
“It took a few days to kind of readjust, you know, when you have hundreds of people chanting your name outside your garage, even four hours after the race!”
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