OLIVER Rowland is hoping to compete for another decade in Formula E and win ‘two or three’ titles, following a change in team for the 2022 season.
The 28-year-old from Penistone left Nissan e.Dams after three years last autumn to join Mahindra Racing for the season which begins in Saudi Arabia in three weeks.
Asked for the ambitions for the remainder of his career, Rowland told the Chronicle: “It has to be a title win.
“I would hope to have more than one, that would be ideal for me.
“But it’s extremely competitive and you need to get in a good rhythm with a good team around you.
“Two or three titles in Formula E would be my main aim but I will have to work extremely hard for that to happen and it will involve a lot of other things as well.
“Being a racing driver isn’t like a footballer where you need your body so much. The older you get, the more experienced you are and the more you can get from the car. But I feel now I still have the youth and speed on my side but also a lot of experience. Hopefully these next few years will be good but I want to have another ten in the sport if I am lucky.”
As for whether a title challenge will happen this year, Rowland isn’t sure yet.
“It’s going to be really, really tight this year. I am pretty relaxed.
“My first goal is to build a good solid foundation in the new team. It doesn’t always happen straight away, especially in Formula E. But there’s no reason, with mine and their potential, that we can’t win some races and, once you do that, you will be in the hunt for the championship.”
Mahindra are based in Banbury whereas Nissan were based in France.
“I am looking forward to it.
“It’s a little bit unknown until we do more testing for the new season.
“Our testing so far has been reasonably good and we’ll be looking to make some small changes before the season starts.
“At Nissan, we had peaked and were starting to struggle a little bit.
“I was outperforming the car at some points.
“At Mahindra it is a new challenge to come in and take them where they’ve never been before.
“They are based in the UK which means I don’t have to travel to Le Mans every week.
“And there was the usual contractual stuff that comes with all of it.”
The electric car series, which runs until August, will also feature races in Mexico City, Rome, Monaco, Berlin, Jakarta, Vancouver, New York, London and Seoul.
“The last 18 months have been difficult for the championship with Covid. But the rate of growth in the first five seasons was incredible and hopefully this year we can get back to that.
“Towards the end of last season we started to get fans back which was good.
“I think everyone knows we can’t keep locking down. Fans are getting back to a lot of sports events.
“London will be great. The family and friends will come and hopefully it can be a good race.
“The track was interesting last year and hopefully it will be similar.
“I always look forward to Monaco and then, of the new ones, Vancouver should be the most interesting.”
