POWER PLAYERS

As the high-voltage FORMULA E season wraps up this month, we chat exclusively with Nissan’s star driver OLIVER ROWLAND and CEO powerhouse JEFF DODDS in Jakarta, Indonesia, for a deep dive into the world’s fastest growing motorsport...

- Interviews by STEWART BELL

OLIVER ROWLAND is almost on top of the world, with the Brit on-course to win his maiden Formula E World Championship this year. It would be an enormous achievement – and not just for Rowland, but his Nissan team, which is also hunting its own maiden team's crown at the pinnacle of electric motorsport.

At the time of writing, the Brit has already secured four wins, seven podiums and two poles, with two rounds and four races remaining in Berlin and London. And looks safe with a 69-point lead on his nearest rival, Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein – but nothing can be taken as guaranteed in motorsport, nor Formula E, where it's brutally competitive. Though on the cusp of a maiden title, Rowland is also guiding the next generation, with the Brit mentoring young gun Arvid Lindblad – who Red Bull highly rates as its next Max Verstappen, a once-in-a-generation talent; and who has also been cleared by the FIA for a Super Licence, rubber stamping his future in F1.

It was a tough race here in Jakarta, not what you needed to close out the title race. How did you feel about your weekend?

[It was] Pretty tough in free practice. I'd actually never really felt comfortable with the car, struggled quite a lot with the tyres, and this morning, when it was wet, we didn't get chance to kind of get in the groove and get the car a little bit better with some system stuff. Then in qualifying, I did a bad job, hit the wall and made a bit of the mess of it on my side – otherwise, I could have been in the duels (Formula E's qualifying finals). But honestly, the race was really good. The car was competitive, managed to get to 6th from 16th. And to be honest, I was behind [Porsche's] Nico Muller at one point, with two minutes more attack mode, but then I had to play the game to try and keep who I needed to keep behind me.