Champion-elect Rowland can ease into homecoming Formula E finale in London

For a huge portion of the current Formula E season, the talk has been about how it’s Oliver Rowland’s championship to lose, and how he’s already got it nailed down.

Talk became truth on Sunday when the Nissan driver emerged from Berlin with enough of a points buffer to ensure that reigning champion and nearest contender Pascal Wehrlein couldn’t overhaul him on Rowland’s home turf when the season concludes in London two weeks from now.

While those of us on the outside were looking in and asking when, not if, Rowland would take the title early, he wasn’t as convinced.

“You guys got a bit annoying,” he tells RACER with a smile, alluding to the media’s near-constant labelling him as a champion-in-waiting. “I literally thought the opposite during the week, and then I got here and you guys tell me, ‘Yeah, you've got this wrapped up, when are you going to win it?’ And I'm like, ‘It doesn't feel like that for me.'

“For me, it was never wrapped up. I was so frustrated at myself yesterday, but yeah, I guess you were kind of right in that respect, that it was looking good, but in my mind, it wasn't.

The reason why Rowland wasn’t allowing himself to get comfortable was that he knew Wehrlein could pounce at any time. It looked to be the case in Berlin. While Rowland retired on Saturday after a needless collision – which earned him a grid penalty for Sunday – Wehrlein chalked up a podium and fastest lap in the first race of the weekend, and an astonishing dominance in qualifying on Sunday only for tire wear in the dry conditions to take him out of contention in the race.

Before we started talking, Wehrlein came over to congratulate his rival. Rowland responded by telling him he could’ve won the last three races of the season, including Sunday’s in Berlin. That would’ve been similar to last year when Antonio Felix da Costa in the other TAG Heuer Porsche entry won four of the last seven races – including three in a row – to vault himself into unlikely championship contention.

“I just know what he's capable of,” Rowland says. “And then you see this morning, you think the guy's driving without pressure. He's just sending it, and we're driving super-well. 

“For me, after every race, I basically just added maximum scores for him and looked at what I needed to do, and it was still quite a lot. If he did 29 points twice (a pole, win and fastest lap), the lead was gone.”

Attack Mode – never truer than Sunday in Berlin for Rowland. Simon Galloway/Getty Images

Despite what he might say, such was Rowland’s lead that he didn’t need to take huge risks or claim certain victories. With Wehrlein running outside the points late in Sunday’s race – where he’d ultimately finish – sixth was enough. Nevertheless, a surge forward became useful. A late Attack Mode – taken while mired in a dicey pack – dropped him down to ninth, and he became a man on a mission. He charged to fourth within the very same lap he took Attack Mode, went to the lead a lap later before settling back to fourth as drivers who left their second Attack Modes even later than him went by.

“Was trying to get out of trouble when I went,” he says of his Attack Mode strategy. “I was in at the time when everybody starts getting stuck in and crashing, and I just said, ‘I'm going to the front.' I knew the guys with more energy would come from the back; it was just a case of how many, so I was just thinking, ‘Let's get out. If it's third, if it's seventh, it is what it is.' I knew that Pascal had less energy and was further back, so it was unlikely to be him [that would pass].

“I tell you, I was really annoyed. When I went through the Attack Mode and like 12 cars passed, I was like, ‘Oh s***,' but I literally just went full send the next lap and a half.”

Securing the title in Berlin means it won’t be a title celebration in London, but rather a homecoming. That just means the pressure is off.

“I'm looking forward to it, actually,” Rowland says. “I was dreading it before the race, thinking, 'Not again, this type of pressure...' but now I'm really looking forward to it. 

"Just going to sleep much better the next two weeks. That's all I really care about. 

"But I said coming into this weekend, if it happens here, great, because it's a relief. If it happens there, great, because it's a celebration in front of the home crowd, but I can probably spend more time with my family and be a bit more relaxed throughout the weekend.”

With this title in the bag, there’s already an eye on next season. It’ll be the second of the current rules cycle, so hardware will remain the same, meaning Rowland and Nissan go into 2025-26 in the best possible position.

“We have a really strong car,” he says. “We can definitely do it again. We've got some areas that we need to improve; I need to lose 10 kilos to give me a bit more speed as well, and that's my focus ahead of next year.”