Williams Martini Racing Young Driver Oliver Rowland has said he no longer wishes to race in Formula 1, after singing a deal with the Nissan e.dams team, who compete in ABB FIA Formula E.
Rowland drove for the e.dams team during the test at the Hungaroring this year, following his third place in the 2017 Formula 2 Championship, also winning the Formula Renault 3.5 Championship in 2015.
Speaking in an interview with Motorsport.com, Rowland said: “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 twenty-two, the best in the world.”
Rowland will make his début with the team in the Ad Diriyah E-Prix this weekend, alongside new team-mate Sebastian Buemi.
He said that he does not want F1 to be his aim anymore, as he thinks there is a difference between some of the drivers on the grid, which he believes is absent in Formula E.
“I don’t think 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, you look at what they’ve achieved, a lot of them deserve to be in F1 at some point or another.”
He added: “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.”
Rowland did complete one day of driving for the team in Valencia, replacing Alexander Albon who have been given a seat with Red Bull Toro Rosso Honda for 2019.
He said the team were not going to put pressure on him to perform, but he would still put pressure on 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 tenth or eleventh, I want to go there and fight with the good guys.”
