Oliver Rowland

Oliver Rowland
Rowland in 2012.
Nationality	British
Born	10 August 1992 Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England
Formula Renault 3.5 Series career
Debut season	2014
Current team	Fortec Motorsports
Car no.	4
Starts	34
Wins	10
Poles	10
Fastest laps	5
Best finish	1st in 2015
Previous series
2015 2012-13 2013 2011 2010–11	GP2 Series Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Formula Renault 2.0 NEC Formula Renault UK FR2.0 UK Winter/Finals Series
Championship titles
2015 2011	Formula Renault 3.5 Series FR2.0 UK Finals Series
Awards
2011 2011	McLaren Autosport Award BRDC SuperStar

Oliver Rowland (born 10 August 1992) is a British racing driver.

Career

Karting

Born in Sheffield, Rowland began karting at the age of seven, and spent a successful decade racing in the various classes around the United Kingdom. After finishing second in the Super 1 National Cadet Championship in 2002, Rowland won the championship for the next two years. In 2005, Rowland moved into the JICA class series, and again finished as a championship runner-up, finishing just two points behind Will Stevens. Rowland also narrowly missed out on the title in 2006, finishing one point behind champion Jack Harvey, and was also second in the Monaco Kart Cup driving for Zip Kart, behind Millennium Motorsport's Scott Jenkins. He also finished 20th in the European Championship for the class.

After his two previous runner-up campaigns, Rowland took the Super 1 JICA title in 2007, 30 points clear of nearest rival Tom Joyner. Joyner did however take the British Open Championship, where Rowland finished in third position. In the continental races, Rowland could only finish 25th in Monaco, and 37th in the European Championship. Rowland moved up to the KF2 class in 2008, and became a member of the Tony Kart Racing Team. Rowland won the CIK-FIA World Cup event in, and also

Formula Renault

Oliver Rowland in Motorland Aragon 2014

Rowland left karting and stepped into Formula Renault, contesting the 2010 Formula Renault UK Winter Series with CRS Racing. He also received sponsorship from the Racing Steps Foundation, which funded his graduation into car racing.^[1] He took two twelfth-place finishes in his first car racing meeting at Snetterton, but eventually took his first win in the final race of the championship, at Pembrey.^[2] The victory helped to move up into seventh place in the championship standings, finishing tied on points with Luke Wright but ahead on countback.

Rowland moved to Fortec Motorsport for a full British championship campaign in 2011.^[3] Rowland took his first podium of the season, with third place at Donington Park, starting a run of four consecutive podiums – all third places – before a run of just two podium finishes in seven races. Rowland's last seven races were his best in the championship, taking four wins, four fastest laps, three pole positions and three second places. As a result of the strong run, Rowland became the winner of the Graduate Cup for young drivers, and finished as runner-up to team-mate Alex Lynn in the main championship; the runner-up position was only sealed on the final lap of the final race, setting the quickest lap to score two bonus points in order to move him into a tie on points with Tio Ellinas, but with four wins to Ellinas' two, he placed ahead on countback.^[4] He also contested the Formula Renault UK Finals Series with the team, and comfortably won the championship with four race wins from six races.^[5] Rowland was nominated for the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award due to his performances in the main series.^[6] On 4 December 2011, after the evaluation tests held at Silverstone, Rowland was named as the winner of the award, taking the £100,000 cash prize and a Formula One test with McLaren.^[7] He led the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 Championship after taking his third victory of the 2013 season at the Red Bull Ring, eventually finishing the season second in the standings.

Formula Renault 3.5

Rowland signed a contract with Fortec Motorsport in July 2013 to race the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in the 2014 season, finishing fourth overall with 2 wins.^[8]

Rowland continued with Fortec Motorsport in 2015, becoming champion in the penultimate round, held at the Le Mans Bugatti circuit.^[9]

Formula E

Rowland will partake in the Punta del Este ePrix with Mahindra Racing, in place of Nick Heidfeld. He finished in 13th place.

GP2 Series

In 2015, Rowland made his GP2 debut at Silverstone with MP Motorsport. He finished in the points in both races. He contested in three other rounds with MP and Status Grand Prix.

In February 2016, it was announced that Rowland would compete in the series full-time with MP.

Formula One

In February 2016, Rowland was confirmed as a member of Renault's young driver program.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2010	Formula Renault UK Winter Series	CRS Racing	6	1	0	0	1	95	7th
2011	Formula Renault UK	Fortec Motorsport	20	4	3	4	13	475	2nd
	Formula Renault UK Finals Series	Fortec Competition	6	4	0	3	6	190	1st
2012	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Fortec Motorsport	14	1	0	0	3	109	3rd
2013	Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0	Manor MP Motorsport	14	3	2	2	8	179	2nd
	Formula Renault 2.0 NEC		8	4	4	4	8	208	4th
	Pau Formula Renault 2.0 Trophy		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
2014	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Fortec Motorsports	17	2	3	1	7	181	4th
2015	Formula Renault 3.5 Series	Fortec Motorsports	17	8	7	4	13	307	1st
	GP2 Series	MP Motorsport	8	0	0	0	0	3	21st
		Status Grand Prix
2015-16	Formula E	Mahindra Racing	1	0	0	0	0	0	20th*
2016	GP2 Series	MP Motorsport

^* Season still in progress.

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	Pos	Points
2014	Fortec Motorsports	MNZ 1 6	MNZ 2 10	ALC 1 3	ALC 2 1	MON 1 5	SPA 1 Ret	SPA 2 3	MSC 1 Ret	MSC 2 5	NÜR 1 4	NÜR 2 Ret	HUN 1 3	HUN 2 4	LEC 1 13	LEC 2 3	JER 1 2	JER 2 1	4th	181
2015	Fortec Motorsports	ALC 1 1	ALC 2 3	MON 1 6	SPA 1 5	SPA 2 1	HUN 1 3	HUN 2 1	RBR 1 1	RBR 2 2	SIL 1 2	SIL 2 1	NÜR 1 1	NÜR 2 10	BUG 1 1	BUG 2 8	JER 1 1	JER 2 2	1st	307

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	DC	Points
2015	MP Motorsport	BHR FEA	BHR SPR	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	AUT FEA	AUT SPR	GBR FEA 10	GBR SPR 7	HUN FEA	HUN SPR	BEL FEA NC	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA	ITA SPR	RUS FEA	RUS SPR					21st	3
	Status Grand Prix																			BHR FEA 22	BHR SPR Ret	ABU FEA 15	ABU SPR C

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2015–16	Mahindra Racing	Spark-Mahindra M2ELECTRO	BEI	PUT	PDE 13	BNA	MEX	LBH	PAR	BER	MOS	LON	LON	20th*	0*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. "Drivers set for RSF FRUK seat battle". racingsteps.co.uk (Racing Steps Foundation). 27 October 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
2. "Thrilling Victory For Oliver Rowland At Pembrey". CRS Racing (CR Scuderia). 15 November 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
3. "RSF confirms 2011 driver line-up". racingsteps.co.uk (Racing Steps Foundation). 11 January 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
4. "Champion Lynn and Rowland share the spoils at Silverstone". Renault Sport UK (Renault Sport). 16 October 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
5. "Rowland and Jiminez Takes the Titles". Renault Sport UK (Renault Sport). 12 November 2011. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
6. Turner, Kevin (6 October 2011). "McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC Award nominees for 2011 announced". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 5 December 2011.
7. O'Leary, Jamie (4 December 2011). "AUTOSPORT Awards McLaren AUTOSPORT BRDC: Oliver Rowland". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 5 December 2011.
8. Arnau Viñals Vendrell, FormulaRapida.net "Rowland sings for Fortec Motorsport in Formula Renault 3.5 Series" http://www.formularapida.net/news/rowland-sings-for-fortec-motorsport-in-formula-renault-3-5/ Retrieved 21 October 2013.
9. http://www.racer.com/international-racing/item/122009-rowland-claims-title-as-orudzhev-wins

External links

• Official website
• Oliver Rowland career summary at DriverDB.com
• British Racing Drivers' Club profile