Formula E champ Rowland expecting a tougher title defense

Oliver Rowland expects to have a tough time defending his Formula E title, saying that the new season will be “the most competitive championship that there’s been.”

Nissan team driver Rowland fended off the 2023-24 champion, Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein, to take last season’s title with two rounds to spare, having led the points for much of the season. Wehrlein had secured his crown the season before at the final event of that campaign, topping a three-way final day fight with Jaguar's Mitch Evans and Rowland.

While Rowland is expected to once again be in the thick of the championship fight, along with Wehrlein, Evans, and others, he says the new season – which starts in Sao Paulo this weekend – will be impossible to predict.

“I think what we have this year is probably the most competitive championship that there's been up and down the grid,” he said. “I think the teams are super close, I wouldn't want to pinpoint one particular person as the closest challenger.”

Rowland warned that he and his Nissan team can’t afford a repeat of last season where, after winning three times and failing to finish on the podium just twice in the first half of the season, he managed just one podium – a win in the second Tokyo race – in the second half.

“I think in order to try and do it again we need to be on absolutely top form, because last year we saw towards the end of the season, we kind of tailed off a little bit, and the others got a bit better,” he said. “But I think it's going to be super tight and super close. Honestly if you ask me now who's going to win, I have no idea.”

Jake Dennis, who won the first championship of Formula E's GEN3 era in 2022-23 for Andretti, echoed Rowland's sentiments.

“I think what we saw in the last couple of rounds in Formula E last season was incredibly close,” he said. “If you don't bring your A game, then you can get punished. And even if you bring something which is decent, it's only really ever now a P12, P15.

“So it's incredibly tight. You need to bring everything you've got in every single session and deliver at all times. And I think the champion this year will be fully deserving.

“You can't win this anymore by fluke. You can't win it on just the odd race here and there. You need to be consistent and deliver top results.

“Hopefully we don't let anyone run away like we did last year with Oliver. We tried our best to close him down, but I think we'll generally see a quite tight championship throughout the whole of this season.”