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Williams Young Driver Rowland no longer aiming at Formula 1

Williams Young Driver Rowland no longer aiming at Formula 1

12-12-2018 19:12
5

Bevan Youl

Oliver Rowland, Young Driver for Williams, has said he is no longer aiming for a drive in Formula 1 after agreeing a deal with the Nissan e.dams squad in the ABB FIA Formula E.

Rowland was signed onto Williams as their ‘Young Driver’ for 2018, and had a run in the test at the Hungaroring this year, after finishing third in the 2017 Formula 2 Championship. He was also the champion of the Formula Renault 3.5 in 2015.

“Formula E is going in a really good direction – it’s getting bigger and bigger. It’s exciting – I think the level of drivers is probably, on average of the 22, the best in the world.” He told Motorsport.com

The British driver will make his debut with the Nissan team at the Ad Diriyah E-Prix this weekend alongside his new teammate Sebastian Buemi. He has said that F1 isn’t his aim anymore.

“I don’t think it’s my aim anymore at all. In F1, you’ve got exceptional people, but maybe not the whole grid is the same. But in Formula E, if you look at what they’ve achieved, a lot of them deserve to be in F1 at some point or another.”

“So, I’m not focussing on that so much anymore. I’ve got a big opportunity with Nissan and that can be long-term, so not so much on Formula 1 anymore.”

He was part of Nissan’s 2018/19 FE challenger but could only complete one day of the pre-season in Valencia as he became a late call up to replace the outgoing Alexander Albon to Toro Rosso for 2019.

When talking about whether he would have any pressure or not he explained that he didn’t have any from the team but only himself.

“There’s pressure from myself a little bit – I want to do well, [But] they’ve made it quite clear that there’s absolutely zero pressure on me.”

“That’s normal, I’m a racing driver – I don’t want to go there and finish 10th or 11th, I want to go there and fight with the good guys.”