Tag: Nissan

The theme of Formula E’s GEN3 era so far has been the battle for supremacy between Porsche and Jaguar, yet as the current season enters its second half, one man isn’t keeping to the script.

Nissan driver Oliver Rowland is a legitimate championship contender sitting third in the points with one win to his name, and could have very nearly been two not for a team error in Misano — a weekend where Nissan hadn’t expected to be so strong due to the track’s high energy consumption tendencies and the Japanese brand’s efficiency deficiency.

Immediately after Misano, Rowland admitted, “I don’t think I ever expected to be in the position that I’m in at the moment” but looking back, he now admits that his performance that weekend has been a cause for optimism moving forwards.

“I think Misano was quite a big surprise for us in terms of how we were able to be competitive in quite an energy-efficient race,” Rowland told RACER. “And what that did was it kind of changed perspective for us, because there’s quite a lot of these energy-sensitive races towards the end of the season. I think that’s why I was quite less optimistic in the beginning, because I knew they were coming. So I guess it’s changed slightly since then.”

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That optimism isn’t coming at the expense of awareness, though. Rowland knows just how stiff the challenge remains.

“I need to be perfect every weekend if I want to go with the two Jags, (Pascal) Wehrlein and Jake (Dennis),” he ssaidays. “I think what we’ve built here is good, but we know that we still lack a little bit in some areas compared to them. But I’m still in it, but not really thinking of that, just trying to do each race as best I can and see how that evolves.”

One area where Rowland acknowledges Nissan is lacking is one-lap pace. Qualifying for Nissan-powered cars has been inconsistent this season, although Rowland has been able to compensate for that with stellar race performances that have seen him accrue the second-highest podium haul this season with six, just one less than championship leader Nick Cassidy.

“It’s tough,” Rowland conceded. “I was on pole in Tokyo and fifth in Misano — but also the second day in Misano I should have been in the Duels. In Monaco, we weren’t as competitive as we thought, and there was some issues that I was having with the car.

“It does seem like we’re more competitive in the race, and that’s what we kind of put a lot of focus into. But we need to make sure that the qualifying is back in a good place — that will help us in the races by not spending too much energy to get to the front of the races so we can be a little bit more efficient.

“I think the main focus for us is efficiency. We understood last year that we missed a bit compared to probably Jaguar and Porsche, and I think what they’ve found is a good step. If we achieve our target, then we’ll be up there with the best thing in terms of efficiency.”

Oliver Rowland feels the unusual 24-hour period in Misano in which he inherited one Formula E win after a post-race ruling, then lost another on the final lap, generated positive momentum overall for his Nissan team, despite the emotional roller coaster.

Rowland was awarded the victory in the first part of the Misano E-Prix after Antonio Felix da Costa was found to have an illegal throttle damper spring in his Porsche, but lost out in Sunday’s race after running out of usable energy five corners into the final lap.

“It’s never the way you want to win, right? You want to stand on top of the podium, and in some aspects, I don’t class it as a pure win because I didn’t stand on top of the podium,” Rowland admitted. “I think what the judgment was for after the race wasn’t performance enhancing, so I didn’t deserve to win that race, let’s say, because somebody beat me.

“What I will take is the points and the rest of the stuff that comes with it, and also the confidence for the team. We’ve put one on the board, now so it kind of relieves a little bit of pressure on that side moving forward.”

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Rowland revealed that he had already left the track by the time the ruling was delivered, and was making his way to another hotel after a rough night before the first race day. Nevertheless, it wasn’t an unexpected call, with he and his team having a feeling something was coming after da Costa’s Porsche remained in scrutineering for a longer time than normal

“I actually had a lot of noise in my hotel on Friday night, and I think I slept an hour and a half,” he said. “So I was swapping hotels and walking between the two of them when I had a call from the team and they sort of informed me that we’d won the race.

“To be honest, it became quite apparent quite quickly after the race that there was something not quite right,” he added. “So we were aware that something was ongoing there and when a car stays in parc ferme for that long, obviously, there’s always a few questions asked.

After inheriting the Saturday win, Rowland nearly added a legitimate victory on Sunday. He had expected high temperatures to work in his favor and hamper the chasing Pascal Wehrlein but it was Rowland who ultimately suffered.

“We expected there to be some thermal limitation from the battery if you sat in the slipstream, very much like you saw in Sao Paulo — a lot of cars finished with a lot of energy still in the car because they weren’t able to use it because of the battery temp,” Rowland explained.

“So by taking the lead, I was also ensuring that I wasn’t going to have any battery temp issues. He (Wehrlein) was in my slipstream for the majority of the race — he kind of built up that energy but he wasn’t able to use it, and the team told me at some point that he’s going to struggle with temperatures and derating, and that’s why he can’t really attack you.

“I think what was quite frustrating is I still had the same energy as (Jake) Dennis, (Nico) Mueller and (Nick) Cassidy and I’d been leading for five laps already. So I was in a very strong position compared to the others if I’d have just held station for 15 laps, to go a bit longer. But it’s also very normal when a Porsche has one or two percent more (energy) than you — it’s almost every race I get told that — and I knew my targets when I could lead the race and when I wouldn’t be able to get past.”

Ultimately, it was the team’s assumption that Wehrlein’s energy advantage would amount to nothing, because of an issue that never came — and Rowland’s subsequent push to hold him off — that cost the British driver.

“In hindsight, the team said it wasn’t that obvious,” he said. “I was very similar apart from Wehrlein and Cassidy, and I think the team just assumed at that point that they weren’t able to use that energy because of the battery temp issues.”

Oliver Rowland says he’s enjoying playing an underdog role in this year’s Formula E championship, as he challenges the Jaguar and Porsche runners for the title.

Rowland’s Nissan package is seen as being inferior to the pace-setting Jaguars and Porsches — Porsche won the championship with customer team Andretti last year as Jaguar won the most races with its factory team and customer outfit Envision Racing. This year is a similar story, Porsche and Jaguar heading the new-for-2024 manufacturers’ trophy, but in the drivers’ standings, Rowland is in the thick of the fight, and was even leading the points until he lost a certain race win last Sunday at Misano with less than a lap to go.

“I don’t think I ever expected to be in the position that I’m in at the moment,” Rowland told select media that included RACER. “But it’s been a welcome surprise, let’s say, and something that I’m actually relishing and enjoying.

“I guess that I’m enjoying the kind of underdog fight. I think nobody really expected anybody other than the probably the Porsches (and) the Jaguars to be able to challenge for the championship this year or race wins, so for us to be kind of in the mix and consistently performing is very positive.”

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Rowland, like championship leader Pascal Wehrlein, has two poles to his name this year, while Jake Hughes’ top qualifying performance on Sunday for Nissan customer McLaren means that the Japanese manufacturer’s powertrain has the most poles so far. But in races, the Porsche has been the class of the field thanks to its superior efficiency, which has enabled it to overhaul poor qualifying performances and score two wins for Wehrlein, another for Andretti’s Jake Dennis, and a fourth for Antonio Felix da Costa that was later rescinded and handed to Rowland.

But while Rowland acknowledges there are stronger drivetrains in the field, he says the Nissan’s all-round performance, keeping it there or thereabouts, is keeping him in the title fight.

“It seems that Porsche, in particular, always has a very strong race package that can kind of qualify a little bit up and down the grid, but still be able to come through,” he said. “But I think what kind of stands to our advantage a little bit at the moment is that we’re kind of good at both — we can qualify towards the front and we can race towards the front. I think it’s a tricky one to say, will we be there in London (for the season finale) — I think the best way to be there in London is just focusing on race by race.”

Elaborating on his chances to still be in the hunt for the championship by the time Formula E heads to the English capital in July, Rowland says there are two races he expects Nissan to fare well at, but two it might struggle at.

“If I look at the calendar, I think last year Nissan were very strong in Monaco in qualifying, and in Portland in qualifying, both Nissan and McLaren were… that was probably one of the best races of the year,” he said. “So I kind of think there’s a little bit of expectation to be competitive there and to be able to race at the front.

“I mean, Portland is going to be a bit of a Misano in terms of the race, but I think after the weekend, we’d have to say that we should be quite OK in those situations. Berlin was a big struggle for the team last year, and obviously, Shanghai is a new track.

“So I think looking at the remaining races, we’ve kind of got two that we don’t really know if we’re going to be that great at, and then two that we should be able to score strong points, in theory. By the time we get to London, unless somebody runs away with that, I think we still should be in with a shout if, if everything goes to plan.”