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Having become Formula E’s 10th different champion, Nissan driver Oliver Rowland conceded that while he had hoped to seal the title in Berlin, his dismal result on Saturday meant that he “was more worried that it might never come.”
Rowland had an up-and-down weekend at Berlin. The Nissan driver was forced to retire from the Saturday’s race after an incident with Maserati rival Stoffel Vandoorne.
The Briton showed a relatively strong performance in Sunday’s qualifying, but had to serve a five-place penalty for his incident with Vandoorne which left him eighth on the grid.
From there, he raced smartly and refused to take any risks, managing to secure a fourth place finish. As his biggest threat to the title, Pascal Wehrlein, finished outside the points despite starting from pole position, Rowland managed to seal the championship ahead of the season finale at London.
“I was hoping before the weekend that the outcome could be [the World Championship], but after yesterday and this morning I was more worried that it might never come,” Rowland started.
“I wasn’t aware of where Pascal was at all. My engineer came on, I think with four or five laps to go and said ‘P4, is good’ and I thought that’s a bit weird. Then I looked at the TV screen, and I got to about eighth and I thought ‘oh, he’s not in the top eight then’. The next time I came around looking again I found him when I started from the bottom.
“I didn’t know if he’d had a problem, so then I was aware that fourth would be enough if Wehrlien didn’t score, so I knew that myself. I didn’t want to ask, because I didn’t want to jinx anything.”
Rowland made his Formula E debut in Season 2 at Punta del Este, completing a single race for Mahindra Racing. The British driver raced in GP2 next and he continued to compete in the same series the following year, albeit it was renamed Formula 2 for 2017.
Having finished the 2017 F2 season in third place in the drivers’ standings, Rowland became Williams’ development driver. He found his way back to the all-electric championship for Season 5 with Nissan before returning to Mahindra in Season 8.
However, things didn’t work out at the Indian team, and he found himself mutually agreeing to part ways mid-way through the season. The following season saw Rowland rejoin Nissan.
Since then, Rowland and the Japanese manufacturer have been on a trajectory and gone from strength to strength and they have shown such a dominant performance since the start of the current season that the British driver was able to seal the title with the London E-Prix double-header still left to complete.
Reflecting on his career moves, Rowland noted: “I took a huge risk for my career and for my family because my contract is what keeps us all fed and watered, so walking away from that was a really, really tough period in my life.
“I remember not sleeping for like, two, three weeks at some point. To kind of write the story and come out on the other side with the team that I started in Formula E with is just perfect.
“As a racing driver, a lot of days are bad and you have to keep believing in yourself that you’re capable of doing it. Going into this year, I was confident that we would have a good chance.
“But, if you go back to Punta del Este, I remember having no idea about anything when I arrived and leaving thinking, ‘I’m not sure I want to do that again, because it was pretty tough’.
“The moment I arrived in the championship and looking at the caliber of drivers here, and the previous world champions, it’s such a good achievement to be World Champion for me and to be part of that is incredible,” concluded Rowland.
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