How Rowland overcame Berlin E-Prix chaos to become Formula E champion

After looking dominant for most of the Formula E season, Nissan’s Oliver Rowland clinched his first world championship drivers’ title on Sunday in Berlin. After a strong start to the 2024-25 campaign with four wins and a further three podiums, Rowland was able to bounce back from a grid penalty to finish fourth while his title contenders fell short.  

Rowland entered the Berlin double-header with a 69-point gap to his nearest challenger and reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein. It was mathematically possible to take the drivers’ crown over the first race on Saturday, but all hope fell by the wayside when Rowland suffered his first retirement of the season after causing a collision when trying to pass a lapped car.

He hit the side of Stoffel Vandoorne’s Maserati MSG with nine laps to go, sending himself into a spin and damaging his steering. He limped back to the pits before retiring, whilst Wehrlein banked a second-place result and a home podium to close the gap.

For his responsibility in the Vandoorne shunt, Rowland was also given a five-place grid penalty and a penalty point for Sunday’s event around the Tempelhof circuit. It was a big blow to his hopes, with things going from bad to worse when Wehrlein looked untouchable during qualifying to achieve Porsche’s first Formula E pole position on home turf.

“I was nervous,” Rowland said about going into Sunday’s race after his incident with Vandoorne. “I’m not going to lie, I was really disappointed with myself, like, really, really disappointed.”

Third place in qualifying became eighth on Sunday’s grid, but no sooner had the lights gone out, Rowland was past Vandoorne for seventh before Turn 1. From there, he was met with the rear of Nico ​​Mueller’s Andretti and the two battled closely until Rowland sent it on the seventh lap to push himself up to fifth. As well as ​​Mueller, the Barnsley-born racer swooped past the Cupra Kiro of David Beckmann who had launched himself up the pack with a very early Attack Mode activation.

Wehrlein still led but had been alternating top spot with Dan Ticktum in the Porsche-powered Cupra Kiro in an attempt to save energy; Rowland 2% up on energy to Wehrlein by lap 11.

Two safety cars followed in quick succession, one for the stranded Envision of Sebastien Buemi and the other for a clash involving Mueller and McLaren’s Sam Bird, by which time Rowland had been bumped down to seventh and Wehrlein was second.  

When green flag racing resumed on lap 26, Wehrlein and Rowland were both quick to take their first Attack Modes but this was the start of the struggles for the Porsche driver, who took just two minutes of his 350kW boost when everyone else around him took four. Wehrlein lost four positions taking Attack Mode, but swiftly recovered to lead again a lap later, as Rowland rubbed wheels with cars as he tried to get his elbows out to keep inside the top five.  

“I thought that’s a bit weird. Then I looked at the TV screen and I got to about eighth and I thought ‘oh, Wehrlein is not in the top eight’. Then the next time I came around looking again I found him when I started from the bottom” Oliver Rowland

With everyone in the top six using their first Attack Mode bar Wehrlein, the 2023-24 drivers’ champion started to fall down the order with Rowland getting past his biggest threat on lap 28 in a clean and easy move, before eventually taking the lead. Wehrlein continued to slip down the order with the type of peloton racing resulting in the pack being so close together.

Each time one looked at the running order, Wehrlein slipped further and further back before dropping out of the points entirely. He was down in 18th by the time Rowland took his second Attack Mode, which then became last place as he also chose to use his remaining six minutes of activation on the same lap.  

Rowland rejoined in ninth, but was able to use his remaining Attack Mode to charge back through the pack whereas Wehrlein struggled with pace. With four laps to go and running in fourth, Rowland explained that he received a radio message from his engineer telling him “P4 is good” which he quickly assumed was about his championship hopes.

Wehrlein’s rapid decline boosted Rowland’s championship hopes

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

“I thought that’s a bit weird,” Rowland said on the rogue radio call, “then I looked at the TV screen and I got to about eighth and I thought ‘oh, Wehrlein is 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 and I was aware that fourth would be enough if Wehrlein didn’t score, so I knew that myself. I didn’t want to ask, because I didn’t want to jinx anything.” 

Rowland remained in fourth, with Nick Cassidy for Jaguar now leading the race after starting in 20th. The Kiwi – who, it’s understood, will depart the British team at the end of this season – improved on his own incredible comeback drive from Saturday, when he went from 21st to fifth, to charge from 20th to win on Sunday and hand Jaguar victories across both race days in the German capital after Mitch Evans’ earlier success. 

Cassidy was joined on the podium by Jake Dennis who achieved his second rostrum of the season for Andretti, as well as DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne in third – with all three drivers climbing up the grid for some well-earned silverware. 

For Rowland though, fourth and no points for Wehrlein was enough to seal the deal and after three additional laps were added, the 32-year-old crossed the finish line to become Formula E’s latest world champion; the 10th different driver in 11 seasons.  

It’s his first title win since Formula Renault 3.5 series in 2015, having also completed stints as a development driver for Renault and Williams in Formula 1. Rowland joined the all-electric championship on a full-time basis for the 2018-19 season with Nissan e.Dams, before making the move to Mahindra in 2021, only to leave the team midway through the 2022-23 campaign. 

Since reuniting with Nissan, Rowland has been a star in Formula E which has culminated in the drivers’ world title

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“I took a huge risk for my career and for my family,” Rowland added, when speaking about his departure from Mahindra. “Walking away from that was a really, really tough period in my life. I remember not sleeping for two or three weeks at some point.” 

Rowland returned to Formula E and to Nissan the following season, as the team acquired full ownership of the outfit from e.Dams from the Gen3 era.

“To 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. The moment I arrived in the championship, looking at the calibre of drivers here, the previous world champions, it’s such a good achievement to be world champion and for me to be part of that is incredible.” 

Rowland will be hoping to help Nissan complete the triple of trophies, the new champion responsible for 184 of the team’s 205 points this campaign, as the Japanese team fights Porsche in both the teams’ and manufacturers’ standings with two races to go in London.

The teams’ championship is still up for grabs at the London finale on 26-27 July

Photo by: Andreas Beil