Oliver Rowland became a genuine title challenger, Formula E’s dark horse of 2024, upon returning to the grid and rejoining Nissan.
Along the way were two wins and a further five podiums, and he led the standings during the Misano weekend when Antonio Felix da Costa’s disqualification handed him victory. The Briton was a lap away from doubling up in Italy when a software glitch stranded him.
Rowland was just a point behind eventual runner-up Mitch Evans when illness kept him out of Portland’s double-header. A win in the London finale underlined what might have been, but it was still his best season yet.
Rowland’s remarkable turnaround
The decision to leave Mahindra midway through 2023 after a string of lacklustre results with an uncompetitive package was a gamble that put Rowland’s Formula E future in serious risk, before he was offered a lifeline by his old employer.
The 32-year-old had spent three seasons with Nissan between 2018-21 and taken the Japanese manufacturer’s first Formula E victory in 2020. And ahead of the new season, Rowland had been adamant that the relationship that had netted his own breakthrough would prove successful once again.
“I’m 110% confident – I couldn’t be more confident in something,” he said. “I’m not saying that means we’re going to go out already in Season 10 and blow everybody’s doors off, but I’m confident in the project, the plans, what the future holds and that it’s going to be a good place to be.”
His return to Nissan heralded something of a fresh start for both parties. Despite non-scores in the opening two races of the season due to poor qualifying, Rowland was encouraged by the outright race pace.
“Last season was really strong from a performance aspect for us, [race pace] probably exceeded our expectations,” said Rowland, whose previous appearance in Autosport’s top 50 came in 2015, the longest absence of this year’s re-entries to the rankings. Even so, he believes there was scope for improvement: “Consistency in qualifying was probably not quite as good as I hoped it would be.”
Rowland nevertheless still managed to take pole for the third race in Diriyah and repeated the feat in Tokyo two races later.
A lack of time at the front arguably showed there, when he was mugged for the win by Maximilian Gunther in the closing stages. And streaking ahead of the field by several seconds in the second Misano race possibly should have set off alarm bells, after the lap counter had malfunctioned.
But during a season where he comfortably put team-mate Sacha Fenestraz firmly in the shade, Rowland exuded confidence not seen for several campaigns – and he had not considered himself a genuine title protagonist for the final year of the Gen3 regulations, when homologation was still locked and finding performance gains difficult.
Rowland added: “What I think was good for us last year is there was almost no pressure. It was a learning year, and it allows you to be more relaxed in your approach.”
