Oliver Rowland signs as a development driver for Renault

It was announced this morning by the Renault F1 Team that Formula 2 racer Oliver Rowland has been hired as an official development driver for the Renault Formula 1 team.

Rowland, who will race for the DAMS squad in the rebranded GP2 series this season, was previously a simulator driver for the French manufacturer. However, Renault's plans for the British driver have not yet been finalised.

In a statement to the media today, Rowland confirms this by stating he doesn't know what his programme with the team will be but is fully focused on his F2 programme.

“In terms of car time it’s not exactly defined in terms of what I’ll do,” said Rowland.
“But hopefully I’ll manage to get either some rookie days or a Pirelli test or something like that. I suppose a little bit of that will depend on my performance in F2. My goals are focused on the F2 championship and I know that if I do a good job then hopefully I’ll be rewarded in some way within F1.”

Rowland won the Formula Renault 3.5 championship in 2015 and also worked as an unofficial simulator driver for the Mercedes F1 team that year.

If Rowland performs well in F2 this season (which gets underway in Bahrain this weekend) and with him finishing in ninth place in his first full season in GP2 last year; he has got to be optimistic about his chances of securing a greater F1 role in 2018.

With previous DAMS drivers Romain Grosjean and Jolyon Palmer both went on to race in F1 after winning the GP2 title with the French squad. And this has got to be motivation and inspirational for Rowland who is determined to follow in his predecessors
“I’d like to think that if I’ve won World Series [FR3.5] and F2, then hopefully I’ll be given a bigger role within F1 next year,” added Rowland.

After spending 2016 with the MP Motorsport squad, Rowland has switched to DAMS and will line up alongside Nicholas Latifi.

Rowland led the 2016 GP2 standings after five rounds before dropping down the order in the second half of the season, but he says DAMS has already helped him adjust how he prepares for races.

“I’ve got full support from Jean-Paul Driot and Francois Sicard, and they’re really helping me change my approach a little bit to do with how I address race weekends,” stated Rowland.

“I go to the factory before each test and each race, and I didn’t do any simulator stuff for GP2 last year and we do a lot of that within the team.”

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa