“More than one f**k up” cost victory in Formula E season-opener

Oliver Rowland believes “more than one f**k up” cost the Nissan Formula E driver a shot at victory in the Sao Paulo E-Prix, having failed to score any points despite leading the most laps.

The Briton started second for the first race of the 2024-25 season, losing out to polesitter and reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein by just 0.099s in qualifying.

After beating the Porsche driver off the line, Rowland led the opening stages on the city street circuit, briefly relinquishing top spot when Nick Cassidy moved ahead courtesy of the new all-wheel-drive Attack Mode.

Having taken both his activations, the second as a red flag came out for the stranded and unsafe car of Jake Dennis, Rowland passed the second Porsche of Antonio Felix da Costa at the standing restart.

He pulled a lead gap of more than three seconds to the pack before being slapped with a drive-through penalty, which ultimately led to his 14th-place finish.

“It’s hard to accept sometimes,” Rowland told Autosport, having led 17 out of 35 laps in Brazil. “We were in good shape, efficient, we were fast. I’m pretty disappointed.

“To be completely honest, there was more than one f**k up, let’s say, and the reason I had three-and-a-half seconds [prior to his penalty] was because of another one.”

When asked if it was in relation to the wrong number of laps being displayed, as happened in Misano last season that meant Rowland ran out of energy from the lead on the final tour, he said: “Not the same, but similar.

“If I had the right amount of laps from the start I had as good an energy as anybody, I would have fought for the win.

“I cleared the drive-through but we wasted so much energy to go. I dropped back to eighth and that showed how much we gained but the problem is the [second] red flag neutralised everything again and then I just had a low target to the end.

“During the first red flag, I was one of the best, I was sat in second, still good energy. And then those four or five laps before the second red flag, that screwed me.”

Rowland’s penalty was as a result of ‘overpower’, which also afflicted his Nissan team-mate Norman Nato, as well as the two customer McLaren entries of Taylor Barnard and Sam Bird.

Sam Bird NEOM McLaren Formula E Team Nissan e-4ORCE 05 Taylor Barnard NEOM McLaren Formula E Team Nissan e-4ORCE 05

Photo by: Alastair Staley / Motorsport Images

With the papaya-coloured cars taking their penalties in the opening phase though, they conserved vast amounts of energy and were able to climb back to third and fourth courtesy of the stoppages.

“It [overpower] comes from the start,” said Rowland. “I was unaware that the other three had got it and I got what they got on the second start.

“It’s due to speed basically. The first start I was closer to Turn 1 so I didn’t get to the speed where there was a problem.

“It’s the transition from front to rear [powertrains, when all-wheel-drive is used], so the second start when I pushed more to Turn 1, I got it.”