Formula E looks to continue its record of crowning a new drivers’ world champion – with 10 different winners across 11 seasons so far. It’s a statistic that shows just how unpredictable the all-electric championship is, but this season one man has been a dominant force: Oliver Rowland.

The Barnsley-born racer could wrap up the World Championship title in Berlin this weekend with Nissan, ahead of the season finale in London across 26 and 27 July. It would be the first time a driver has sealed the deal ahead of the final weekend since Antonio Felix da Costa in Season 6, during a year heavily impacted by the pandemic.

Rowland has won four of the 12 rounds so far this campaign, securing seven podiums across the first nine races. He sits top of the table with 172 points, with his nearest challenger being reigning World Champion and former F1 driver Pascal Wehrlein on 103 points. The Porsche driver is closely followed by his team-mate da Costa on 98, with McLaren’s Taylor Barnard having an incredible rookie year to enter the final four races with 92 points.

How can Rowland win the title in Berlin?

With such a significant gap to second, Rowland needs to create a gap of 87 points to Wehrlein after Saturday’s race, Round 13 – that’s a difference of 18 points on top of what they have now. That’s either second place for Rowland and no points for Wehrlein, or a win and Wehrlein finishing no higher than seventh with no additional points for pole or fastest lap.

If that doesn’t work, Rowland needs to lead by 58 points after Sunday’s Round 14.

The championship follows the same points-scoring system as Formula 1, so 25 points for the win, 18 for second and 15 for third, and so on. There’s also an extra point for the fastest lap and three points for pole position.

Who is Oliver Rowland?

Briton Oliver Rowland has been around motor sport for a long time, as a multiple single-seater and karting champion. He won the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series, and finished third in the 2017 FIA Formula 2 Championship – won that year by Charles Leclerc.

That same year he was a Development Driver for the Renault F1 Team, before moving over to the same role at Williams Martini Racing the following year.

Rowland joined Formula E on a full-time basis from Season 5, racing with Nissan e.Dams for three seasons before making the unsuccessful switch to Mahindra Racing. He returned back to Nissan – the Japanese manufacturer taking full ownership of the team from e.Dams –  from last season, and the pairing has been triumphant.

Always looking after the next generation

As well as his own racing programmes, Rowland is one of the most selfless racing drivers around. He founded ‘Oliver Rowland Motorsport’, which had to close its doors last year, helping an endless amount of young karters over a seven year period and crown British Champions.

Some of his support has even come full circle, with Taylor Barnard previously part of Rowland’s karting academy. The two are now fighting each other for wins on-track in Formula E, and both share a Nissan powertrain in their respective cars.

Rowland is also a mentor to Red Bull junior Arvid Lindblad, who received an FP1 opportunity with Red Bull Racing at last weekend’s British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

In an interview with FIA Formula 3 last year, Lindblad credited Rowland as being one of his biggest inspirations:

“I have known [Rowland] since I was seven through the team I was racing in. Then we worked together, starting more seriously when I was nine, and set up a karting team together. We won the British Championship, and when I was racing in Europe he was a little bit less involved but would keep in contact every day.

 

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“It’s hard to pick out one piece of advice he has given me, but I’d say his help in managing expectations. I think that’s the biggest thing. We knew when this was going to happen, we weren’t naive to know that the step was going to be difficult, and he helped me a lot to keep my feet on the ground and to know how difficult it’s going to be.

“Also, on top of that all the knowledge he brings, knowledge of the circuits, knowledge of the car, knowledge of the format, I can’t put enough value on that.”