Oliver Rowland (born 10 August 1992) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

racing driver. He is currently competing full-time in

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, who is ...

driving for

Mahindra Racing Mahindra Racing is a motor racing team based in Banbury, United Kingdom, competing with an Indian racing licence. The team is currently competing in the electric FIA Formula E Championship since the inaugural season in 2014. The team formerly com ...

. He has previously competed for

Manor Motorsport Manor Motorsport Ltd, currently trading as Manor Endurance Racing Ltd is a British motor racing company that was formed in 1990 by former single-seater champion John Booth. Manor has participated as a team in many motorsport disciplines since ...

in the 2018 WEC season, and he was also previously the young driver of

Williams F1 Team Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, currently racing in Formula One as Williams Racing, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded by former team owner Frank Williams (Formula One), Frank Williams and aut ...

during the 2018 Formula 1 season.

Career

Karting

Born in

Barnsley Barnsley () is a market town in South Yorkshire, England. As the main settlement of the Metropolitan Borough of Barnsley and the fourth largest settlement in South Yorkshire. In Barnsley, the population was 96,888 while the wider Borough has ...

, Rowland began karting at the age of seven, and spent a successful decade racing in the various classes around the United Kingdom. After finishing second in the Super 1 National Cadet Championship in 2002, Rowland won the championship for the next two years. In 2005, Rowland moved into the JICA class series, and again finished as a championship runner-up, finishing just two points behind

Will Stevens William Stevens (born 28 June 1991) is a British racing driver, who formerly competed in Formula One, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0, Toyota Racing Series and the British Formula Renault Championships. In Formula One, he made his debut at the 2 ...

. Rowland also narrowly missed out on the title in 2006, finishing one point behind champion Jack Harvey, and was also second in the Monaco Kart Cup driving for Zip Kart, behind Millennium Motorsport's Scott Jenkins. He also finished 20th in the European Championship for the class. After his two previous runner-up campaigns, Rowland took the Super 1 JICA title in 2007, 30 points clear of nearest rival Tom Joyner. Joyner did however take the British Open Championship, where Rowland finished in third position. In the continental races, Rowland could only finish 25th in Monaco, and 37th in the European Championship. Rowland moved up to the KF2 class in 2008, and became a member of the Tony Kart Racing Team. Rowland won the CIK-FIA World Cup event in, and also placed third in the WSK International Series and fifth in the European Championship. He also competed in the KF1 Asia-Pacific series, where he finished eleventh. In 2009, Rowland competed for most of the season in Super KF, competing for Chiesa Corse. He finished sixth in the European Championship, ninth in the World Cup, and twelfth in the World Championship; his best result came at the South Garda Winter Cup, where he finished in fourth position. Rowland remained in Super KF in 2010, where he won his second World Cup crown, and also finished 16th in the KZ1 version of the series.

Formula Renault

Rowland left karting and stepped into Formula Renault, contesting the 2010 Formula Renault UK Winter Series with

CRS Racing CRS Racing is a British auto racing team founded by British driver Andrew Kirkaldy and Canadian-Greek driver and entrepreneur Chris Niarchos. The team was founded in 2007, but is based on the former team of Kirkaldy known as Team AKA which comp ...

. He also received sponsorship from the

Racing Steps Foundation The Racing Steps Foundation, abbreviated as RSF, was an organisation founded by Graham Sharp running from 2008 to 2017 with former Formula One driver, the late John Surtees as the ambassador for the organization. RSF aided young British racing drive ...

, which funded his graduation into car racing. He took two twelfth-place finishes in his first car racing meeting at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

, but eventually took his first win in the final race of the championship, at

Pembrey Pembrey (Welsh: ''Pen-bre'') is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales, situated between Burry Port and Kidwelly, overlooking Carmarthen Bay, with a population of about 2,154 in 2011. The electoral ward having a population of 4,301. It is in the ...

. The victory helped to move up into seventh place in the championship standings, finishing tied on points with Luke Wright but ahead on countback. Rowland moved to

Fortec Motorsport Fortec Motorsport Ltd. is a motor-racing team that races in the GB3 Championship. The team was bought in 1995 by current owner Richard Dutton. Past drivers for the team include Juan Pablo Montoya, Gianmaria Bruni, Danny Watts, Jamie Green, Jame ...

for a full British championship campaign in

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. Rowland took his first podium of the season, with third place at

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

, starting a run of four consecutive podiums – all third places – before a run of just two podium finishes in seven races. Rowland's last seven races were his best in the championship, taking four wins, four fastest laps, three pole positions and three second places. As a result of the strong run, Rowland became the winner of the Graduate Cup for young drivers, and finished as runner-up to teammate

Alex Lynn Alexander George Lynn (born 17 September 1993) is a British racing driver. He most recently competed in Formula E, driving for Mahindra Racing in the 2021 season, winning the second race of his home ePrix in London. Lynn has also competed full- ...

in the main championship; the runner-up position was only sealed on the final lap of the final race, setting the quickest lap to score two bonus points in order to move him into a tie on points with

Tio Ellinas Eftihios "Tio" Ellinas (born 27 January 1992 in Larnaca, Cyprus) is a Cypriot race car driver. Ellinas began racing go-karts at the age of seven, and from 2003 - 2009 won 10 kart racing championships in Cyprus, in 2005 winning the ROK Cup Intern ...

, but with four wins to Ellinas' two, he placed ahead on countback. He also contested the Formula Renault UK Finals Series with the team, and comfortably won the championship with four race wins from six races. Rowland was nominated for the

McLaren Autosport BRDC Award The Aston Martin Autosport BRDC Award is an award set up in 1989 to reward and recognise young racing drivers from the UK. As its names suggest, the award is backed by Aston Martin, motorsport magazine Autosport, and the British Racing Drivers' Cl ...

due to his performances in the main series. On 4 December 2011, after the evaluation tests held at Silverstone, Rowland was named as the winner of the award, taking the £100,000 cash prize and a

Formula One Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...

test with

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formul ...

. He led the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship after taking his third victory of the 2013 season at the Red Bull Ring, eventually finishing the season second in the standings. He was part of the McLaren young driver programme in 2007–2010

Formula Renault 3.5

Rowland signed a contract with Fortec Motorsport in July 2013 to race the

Formula Renault 3.5 Series The World Series Formula V8 3.5, formerly the World Series by Nissan from 1998 to 2004, the Formula Renault 3.5 Series from 2005 to 2015 and the Formula V8 3.5 in 2016 and 2017, was a motor racing series promoted by RPM Racing (1998–2004) and R ...

in the 2014 season. He finished fourth overall with two wins and seven podiums. Rowland continued with Fortec Motorsport in the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5. He won eight races out of 17, becoming champion in the penultimate round. Rowland won a test with Red Bull F1 at Silverstone for leading the series in 2015.

Formula E

Mahindra

Rowland competed in the

2015 Punta del Este ePrix The 2015 Punta del Este ePrix (officially the 2015 FIA Formula E Julius Baer Punta del Este ePrix) was a Formula E motor race held on 19 December 2015 at the Punta del Este Street Circuit in Punta del Este, Uruguay. It was the second Punta de ...

with

, in place of

Nick Heidfeld Nick Lars Heidfeld (born 10 May 1977) is a German professional racing driver. Despite scoring regular podium finishes in with Williams Grand Prix Engineering, Williams, and in and with BMW in Formula One, BMW Sauber, Heidfeld never won a rac ...

, who had to undergo

surgery Surgery ''cheirourgikē'' (composed of χείρ, "hand", and ἔργον, "work"), via la, chirurgiae, meaning "hand work". is a medical specialty that uses operative manual and instrumental techniques on a person to investigate or treat a pat ...

for

ligament A ligament is the fibrous connective tissue that connects bones to other bones. It is also known as ''articular ligament'', ''articular larua'', ''fibrous ligament'', or ''true ligament''. Other ligaments in the body include the: * Peritoneal li ...

damaged that he sustained during the

Putrajaya ePrix The Putrajaya ePrix was an automobile race of the Formula E championship in Putrajaya, Malaysia, taking place in November. It was first raced in the 2014–15 season. Circuit The ePrix was held on the Putrajaya Street Circuit. The track was spe ...

. Rowland started the race 16th on the grid, and managed to finish in 13th place. He did not race again in

for the rest of the season, but he served as a studio pundit for the television broadcast at some of the remaining races.

Nissan e.dams

22 Oliver Rowland at Lung Wo Rd, Man Yiu St (20190310164910)

During the 2016-17 season, Rowland was hired by Renault e.Dams as a standby replacement for

Sébastien Buemi Sébastien Olivier Buemi (born 31 October 1988) is a Swiss professional racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula E Championship for Envision Racing. He competed for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One from 2009 to 2011. After leaving Formula ...

for the 2017 Mexico City ePrix. In November 2018, Rowland joined the championship full-time with the newly re-branded Nissan e.Dams following the departure of

Alexander Albon Alexander Albon Ansusinha ( th, อเล็กซานเดอร์ อัลบอน อังศุสิงห์; , , born 23 March 1996) is a Thai-British racing driver currently competing in Formula One for Williams Racing, under th ...

Toro Rosso Scuderia Toro Rosso (; literal translation of "Red Bull Racing Team"), commonly known as Toro Rosso or by its abbreviation STR, was an Italian Formula One racing team. It was one of two Formula One teams owned by Austrian beverage company Re ...

. He claimed his first pole in

in Sanya ePrix and finished in second place in the race, which was his first podium in Formula E. He took his first Formula E win at the 2020 Berlin ePrix, leading every lap after starting on pole position.

Return to Mahindra

Rowland moved to Mahindra for the 2021–22 Formula E season. He took his first points finish for the team at the 2022 Diriyah ePrix. Rowland retired from the inaugural

Jakarta ePrix The Jakarta ePrix is an annual race of the open-wheel car, single-seater, Electric car, electrically powered Formula E championship, which is held in Jakarta, Indonesia. It is the first Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA-sanctioned ...

after losing one of this tyres on the second lap.

GP2 Series

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

, Rowland made his GP2 debut at

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

with

MP Motorsport MP Motorsport (previously Marcel Peters Motorsport) is a Dutch auto racing team currently competing in the FIA Formula 2 Championship. The team has also participated in Auto GP, Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 and Formula Renault 2.0 Northern Europea ...

. He finished in the points in both races. He contested in three other rounds with MP and

Status Grand Prix Status Grand Prix is a former motorsport team registered in Canada. Team history Based in Silverstone the team was formed in 2005 to run the A1 Team Ireland franchise in the new A1 Grand Prix series. The team's founders were former Jordan Grand Pr ...

. In February 2016, it was announced that Rowland would compete in the series full-time with MP, with whom he finished ninth. For the 2017 season, Rowland switched to the

DAMS A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...

squad, finishing third in the championship.

Formula One

In February 2016, Rowland was confirmed as a member of Renault's young driver program, and in April 2017 Rowland was signed to the role of development driver to the

Renault F1 Team The French automotive manufacturer Renault has been associated with Formula One as both team owner and engine manufacturer for various periods since 1977. In 1977, the company entered Formula One as a constructor, introducing the turbo engine ...

. In February 2018 Rowland was confirmed as

Williams Martini Racing Williams Grand Prix Engineering Limited, currently racing in Formula One as Williams Racing, is a British Formula One motor racing team and constructor. It was founded by former team owner Frank Williams (Formula One), Frank Williams and aut ...

's official Junior Driver.

Racing record

Career summary

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 2.0 UK Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete Formula E results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap) ^† Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Complete FIA Formula 2 Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

24 Hours of Le Mans Results

References

External links

* *
British Racing Drivers' Club profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, Oliver 1992 births Living people Sportspeople from Sheffield Racing drivers from Yorkshire English racing drivers Karting World Championship drivers British Formula Renault 2.0 drivers Formula Renault Eurocup drivers World Series Formula V8 3.5 drivers GP2 Series drivers Formula E drivers FIA Formula 2 Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers Fortec Motorsport drivers Manor Motorsport drivers MP Motorsport drivers Status Grand Prix drivers Mahindra Racing drivers DAMS drivers Strakka Racing drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers CRS Racing drivers Nismo drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers