The key mindset that led Oliver Rowland and Nissan to the Formula E title
You'd forgive Oliver Rowland for feeling this way, with the Briton winning Nissan's very first Formula E world title after his championship lead dwindled of late – but always remained substantial.
This was unprecedented success for a manufacturer whose team was born as Renault e.dams amid the inception of the championship back in 2014. Since Nissan started taking over the outfit in 2018, it had claimed just four race wins in six years – three of them courtesy of Rowland – before the 32-year-old took another four this season alone.
Their stories are deeply intertwined; in the team's first campaign as Nissan e.dams, Rowland got a surprise, career-defining call for a full-season debut after Alex Albon inflicted a last-minute defection on the squad to join Toro Rosso in Formula 1.
Rowland was there for three seasons before moving across to Mahindra, an outfit he left halfway through the 2023 campaign because he 'wasn't really enjoying himself', at a team that was 'very unlikely to bring him the results he was looking for'.
Returning to Nissan has paid off handsomely, even though the makeup of the squad had changed significantly since his first stint there, and key to those results are team members' willingness to accept criticism and their drive to improve, Rowland said.
Rowland clinched the Formula E title this year in his eighth season of the championship, with a previous best finish of fourth
'I've worked with teams in the past that can be a little bit defensive and not open-minded, whereas [at Nissan] I feel like I can say anything and it's never taken in a personal way; it's always taken like, 'how can we be better?'' Rowland explains.
'Honestly, I think that comes from [late DAMS cofounder] Jean-Paul Driot, who instilled that mentality in a lot of his team who were at DAMS.
'That's what I absolutely love about my team. Nothing is ever personal; you can be as hard, strong and negative about something, and we always turn it into a positive and make it better.'
'My target for every race this year has just been to make the duels [the top eight drivers in qualifying] and then finish in the top six in the race. That's never changed since day one of this season' Oliver Rowland
Rowland too has been on a journey of development as a driver ever since his full-time Formula E debut six years and a half ago, and said he was 'really, really fortunate to have some amazing team-mates'.
He joined Formula E victory record co-holder Sebastien Buemi during his first three seasons, branding him the team-mate he learned the most from – both 'on the driving and the technical side', particularly regarding feedback.
But succeeding in Formula E was also about having the right mindset, Rowland says: 'From a maturity perspective, it's just understanding. When I was young, it was all about being fast and winning everything, and if you weren't winning you might as well not be there. And sometimes, especially in Formula E with the calibre of drivers, you cannot expect to win every weekend. So some weekends the best result might be to finish fifth, sometimes it might be eighth, sometimes it might be first.'
Rowland learned a lot from his former Nissan team-mate and 2015/16 series champion, Buemi
That's something Rowland diligently put into practice this season as, despite four wins and three second-place finishes, his only goal was consistency – something which seeing a sports psychologist for a few years helped him settle for.
'My target for every race this year has just been to make the duels [the top eight drivers in qualifying] and then finish in the top six in the race. That's never changed since day one of this season,' says Rowland.
And it makes sense in a topsy-turvy series like Formula E. Rowland is on nine top-six finishes in 14 races so far, with Taylor Barnard and Jean-Eric Vergne next up on seven; in any season, such consistency will make a driver a title contender.
But it was also about managing the pressure, as the self-described 'doubting guy' built up a seemingly unassailable 86-point lead over the first 10 races of the season, which was down to 50 after the first Berlin round.
'I had such a big advantage that it was a case of my mind telling me 'don't bottle it', like we'd seen last year with Nick [Cassidy] who had quite a big lead with four races to go and lost it all,' he adds, referring to Cassidy holding a 25-point lead but ending up third in the standings after a nightmare couple of double-headers. 'That was on the back of my mind a lot of the time. Everybody was basically saying it was a case of when I was going to win, not if, but in my head it was not like that at all.'
With all the emphasis on mindset so far, technological progress at Nissan still played a key role, with engineers having moved from Japan to France to help develop the car – which showed its strength in the races with its efficiency.
Rowland stood on the podium in seven of the opening nine races in the 2024/25 campaign, which included four wins
Although Rowland was a frontrunner last season, he still labelled that previous campaign a 'building year' for the team.
'I managed to do all the development of this year's car throughout the tail end of last year – so selecting parts, having influence on what direction we wanted to go in was something that I was heavily involved in, and I think that helped me build a car that suited me and that performed well,' Rowland explains. 'Then this year it was just a case of trying to put together the best possible championship that I could.'
Of course, fourth in the teams' standings doesn't do justice to Nissan's campaign – Norman Nato has collected just 19 points, with Rowland insisting the Frenchman has been 'incredibly unfortunate'.
'I actually owe a little bit to Arvid [Lindblad], because we got this guy in to work with Arvid and I listened in on the calls and had input. I realised how much value was in there for me as well, and trying to explain things to him at such a young age' Oliver Rowland
In a rare highlight, Nato grabbed pole position and took the chequered flag first in Miami, only to receive a 10-second penalty for not completing his six minutes of attack mode, which dropped him down to sixth.
Rowland also attributes his improved mindset to the work he has done with longtime protege Arvid Lindblad who, as a young karter, Rowland took under his wing. Lindblad is now a Red Bull junior and a frontrunner in the Formula 2 championship – and the best-placed driver to potentially join Racing Bulls for F1 2026.
'I actually owe a little bit to Arvid, because we got this guy in to work with Arvid and I listened in on the calls and had input,' Rowland says. 'I realised how much value was in there for me as well, and trying to explain things to him at such a young age.'
Rowland has worked a lot with F1 hopeful, Lindblad
The Englishman has not raced in any other series ever since he joined Formula E back in late 2018, and has insisted that this arrangement suits him perfectly, especially given his status as a father – with his young daughter having famously announced his world title on the team radio.
'I really believe that being focused on Formula E is very important to be successful, [not having] too many distractions and too many switching,' Rowland concludes. 'I see Norman's schedule as I've seen with Buemi in the past. These guys don't spend much time at home. I have a family that I want to be present for.
'I also have Arvid in Formula 2, who I'm investing a lot of my time in, and I want that to be a success. I'm already doing 10 of the 14 Formula 2 races, so if you add the 10 onto the Formula E schedule, I'm already incredibly busy and I just feel like [taking on another racing programme] wouldn't work. The balance that I have at the moment is really nice and something that I don't really want to change.'
And Rowland's relative lack of notoriety, particularly compared to F1 drivers, is ideal to him. 'I can still get around hotels and travel without being stopped everywhere. So I'm very happy with where my life's at at the moment.' Perhaps he'll still get to sign a few more autographs following his latest, biggest success.
Rowland will head to the 2024-25 finale in London as a Formula E champion for the first time
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