Oliver Rowland aiming to be virtual Formula E champion

With the Formula E championship postponed until at least July due to coronavirus, the 24 drivers have been taking part in a virtual championship on their simulators at home which has been screened live on Eurosport 2, BBC IPlayer/website and YouTube.

Rowland fared well in the first race – finishing sixth – but will be looking to get on the podium at this weekend’s second round, which gets underway at 4.20pm.

“It’s exactly like a real race,” explained Rowland. “It’s pretty impressive how the technology works. It’s quite new to me so it’s pretty cool.

“To be honest, it’s pretty realistic. The tracks are very close to reality. You don’t have the car moving around so you don’t feel it with your body but in terms of the steering and the brakes it’s actually very realistic.

“All the drivers are racing in their own cars with their own livery and helmets. Even the tracks have all the actual sponsor strips round the side.

“Max Guenther won the first round last weekend. Him and Stoffel Vandoorne are quite experienced on the simulator side of things and are expected to do the best out of everyone but I finished sixth so I’m hoping if I can get a bit more practice in that I can jump up the order a little bit.”

As far as this year’s actual championship is concerned, Rowland is still in the dark about when the season will resume.

Only five races of the 2019-20 season were possible before the lockdown, but he is hopeful of picking up where he left off in Marrakesh if the series does get the green light to resume.