In an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, FIA Formula E star Oliver Rowland talks, amongst other things, the rejuvenation of his career and his hopes for Season 11.
Oliver Rowland’s Season 10 was a personal story of redemption. Exiting Mahindra midway through Season 9 cast doubts on whether the likeable Englishman would ever return to Formula E.
But his former employers Nissan took a chance on him and after a superb third-place finish at round three in Diriyah, Rowland never seemed to look back.
With a consistent season which saw him earn two victories, narrowly miss out on another, and score a plethora of points finishes, Rowland finished the season fourth in the Drivers’ Championship.
Rowland says that whilst might have been room to do more, it was a season in which the Japanese marque can regard as a success.
“I think going into the season, the targets were to consistently score points, to kind of build throughout the season and be in good shape for the coming season now. I don’t think we set really too many expectations.
“To do seven [podiums] and two wins was never really on the cards, so I think you would have to say that in total it was a successful season. I think we definitely overachieved and I guess it puts a bit of pressure on this year to do even better.”
After his bittersweet weekend in Misano where he inherited victory from Antonio Felix da Costa’s disqualification, and then losing a second win on the last lap in race two, Rowland revealed to Motorsport Week that he had been seeking help and advice from a sports psychologist.
He says now that the work with them took time to see results, and after his disappointing experience in Season 9 still lingering in his mind, he took a few races in S10 to get back to form.
“I think there was a lot of things that I implemented throughout the year. I also think there was an element of confidence in the first couple of races. I was doubting myself.
“I was also doubting the team and the way they were working because I’d had not the best experience, obviously, the year-and-a-half that I’d done before.
“I was kind of not trusting enough of the people around me and that’s what took the most time, to even working with the sports psychologist was to just stop wasting energy on things that were out of my control and focusing a lot more on giving detailed feedback, enjoying the race weekends and actually just performing myself, whereas in the beginning, I was always worrying about everybody else’s job.
“So I think that was one of the keys to unlocking performance throughout the season, that’s something that I obviously want to continue.”
Qualifying ‘below what I expected’
Despite what was a season in which he showed his competitors and fans that he is very much an evergreen driver, Rowland, ever the professional, sees the areas in his game that he feels can improve on for Season 11, particularly his performances in qualifying.
“I think as a driver, you’re never fully satisfied and, honestly, I wasn’t. I think my race performances were good, but my qualifying, or should I say our qualifying, was below what I expected.
‘Sometimes there wasn’t much consistency there and almost a little lack of understanding at times of why we weren’t quite where we needed to be, so yeah, I think from that side, something that I want to focus on is qualifying better because it used to be one of my real strengths.
“I want to make sure that, you know, over the off-season with the development testing and stuff like that, that we really get on top of qualifying, because I think as we saw last year, in some races you could come from the back, but you could be much more efficient from the front if you could kind of place yourself where you want to place.
“Whereas if you’re like 10th backwards, you risk getting in trouble, although I was good at staying out of it. I think that’s one thing that I definitely need to look at and look at improving.
“But yeah, majority of the races were good. There was a couple of instances where you can be better, but honestly, like with as much experience as I have now, you’re always going to get those races and especially inform these.
“I think I just need to focus on being slightly more consistent and just improving qualifying and then everything else should take care of itself.”
Season 11 was where Nissan had really been expecting to make its significant gains, and whilst the surprise of the speed the car showed in S10 may now provide added pressure, there is a philosophy in Rowland that Formula E, by its nature, a heavily competitive sport and all they can do is work hard.
“My mentality is to just always do the best with what I’ve got – it’s what I did last year. It’s kind of why, in my head, I don’t want to kind of have too many expectations going into the season because I know how competitive this championship is and you can quickly become disappointed but I think we just have to keep going about our day-to-day stuff and working on improving the car, improving myself, improving the team around me and kind of see what comes from it.
“But I think what we have coming in terms of the GEN 3.5 and the experience now we’ve gained over a year with myself and the team and all that sort of stuff, yeah, I’m hoping to at least equal what I was able to do last year, and if we can go a little bit better, then that would be obviously an added bonus.”
‘You can’t lose time and energy’ thinking about what-ifs
Despite misgivings about areas of his own performance, Rowland continued to be lurking in the shadows of the main title contenders – Nick Cassidy, Mitch Evans and eventual champion Pascal Wehrlein – and was within range of challenging for the title as the season neared its end, but his challenge was curtailed by illness which ruled him out of the Portland double-header.
In a recent interview with Motorsport Week, Nissan’s Team Principal Tommaso Volpe stated that, due to the peloton nature of the Portland event, Rowland stood significant chance of doing well enough to keep him in the hunt for the title. Whilst Rowland felt disappointed, he reiterates it was not in his interest to waste time focusing on something out of his control.
“As soon as the race finished in Portland watching, obviously I was feeling terrible at home watching it and knowing that I wasn’t being there, but you can’t lose time and energy thinking about that.
“As far as I was concerned from even the Monday afterwards, the line was drawn under it. I didn’t want to dwell on what had happened and, you know, the, the implications that could have had in the championship for me.
“I think what makes it a little bit better if I look back and I calculate the points that I could have got or missed there, I probably still wouldn’t be champion.
“Maybe I could have been second or third, but, um, because of that, it makes it a bit easier. If I’d have been only 20 points off the top, I think it would be, maybe I would think about it a little bit more than I actually do.”
One of the big talking points of the close season has been Nissan’s late call to replace Rowland’s team-mate Sacha Fenestraz with Norman Nato. Rowland gives little away in terms of his own opinions, stating that he is focused on himself, and less on the person in the sister car.
“So as a racing driver, you tend to be always focusing on yourself and a bit selfish in a way, so I think not much changes depending on whoever’s in the car next to me.
“From my perspective, I got on very well with Sasha. I had a good relationship with him and there’s an element of sadness towards him that he didn’t manage to continue, but at the same time, I obviously welcome Norman.
“I’ve known him for many years now, raced against him for many years and yeah, I’m sure we’ll have a lot of fun along the way.”
Potential Attack Charge could ‘create a whole new strategic game’
One of the focal points of Season 11 is the introduction of the GEN3 Evo car. With all-wheel drive and a projection of much faster lap times, there is a significant interest in whether the new cars will drive well on the faster circuits, and with the Jeddah Corniche Circuit and an oval-and-infield layout projected for Miami, Rowland believes the new cars will cope well.
“I think on a push lap, obviously with the four-wheel drive and the extra grip, the cars are going to be a little bit more impressive.
“In the races, honestly, at the moment, I can’t really say because I think there’s going to be a lot of variables dependent on if we finally have the Attack Charge, which I think we should.
“That’ll create a whole new strategic game in terms of how the races play out, where you want to be, what’s going on, you know, many, many different things, so I think right now I’m not entirely sure how the races are going to play out.
“I think for us it’s quite an unknown and I guess over the first five races, we’ll see the guys who kind of pick up the small tricks first.
“I think obviously with the four-wheel drive in the races, the Attack Modes will be more beneficial, whereas we’ve kind of seen sometimes this year that they’re not very effective anymore because of the small power increase, but also you lose kind of efficiency when you’re there, so I think there’s going to be a lot of elements to the race that will make it interesting.
“Obviously, we’ve got to get it right in terms of making the show good but if I’m completely honest, I’ve had a couple of months off. I’ve done a few development tests, but it’s not really something that I’ve spent that much time thinking about yet because we still got a bit of time before the first race, and I think with some of these things, you can kind of overthink them sometimes a little bit.
It has been suggested that the long-awaited Attack Charge in Formula E that Rowland mentions may come soon, but some teams and drivers are allegedly losing interest in the idea. Rowland, however, appears to be a fan.
“I think we’re ready for it. I think we’ve been ready for it for quite a long time, to be honest.
“I mean, not 100% ready, but I think we have everything in place to deal with it.
“I think positively last week when we were testing in Mallorca, the attack charge worked quite well, I think, on our side, which is a first and quite positive news heading into the season. So, yeah, we just need to make sure that it’s all reliable.
“You know, we don’t want to see teams or drivers losing races because of an issue in the pit stop. So, it has to run reliably and run well, and then I think it’ll be a good addition to the championship, to be honest, and an important part of formally moving forward.”
Porsche and Jaguar to set benchmark?
With a look ahead to the new season, testing commences in Valencia next month and with Formula E always one of the most competitive and unpredictable motorsport categories around, Rowland is hesitant to talk up Nissan’s chances, but believes there will be huge competition.
“I think obviously DS Penske were improving last year a lot, particularly in qualifying so I expect them to be strong. Obviously we know that Jaguar and Porsche will be strong and Andretti have a Porsche – they’ll be strong.
“I have quite a bit of experience when I was with [Nico] Müller at Mahindra and I think he will bring a lot to that team as well. You’ve got the Envisions looking to bounce back. We’ve got to compete against McLaren who have the same powertrain as us. Obviously Taylor’s [Barnard] arrived, a bit of young blood, probably take him a little bit of time to get to speed.
“ERT have got a Porsche, so that can be competitive depending on how much they’ve actually improved over the season. You can quickly find yourself eighth or ninth in terms of best team but honestly, I expect the factory Jaguar and Porsche teams to be still the reference. I guess there’s part of me that hoping that we’ve caught them.”
