Oliver Rowland deemed on a par with Max Verstappen in ‘overshadowed’ claim

And that claim comes from Formula E driver Sacha Fenestraz, who talked up British racer Rowland as Verstappen’s equal, while apparently, Verstappen told the Brit directly that he would have been more than that had they shared the F1 grid.

Would Oliver Rowland have ‘overshadowed’ Max Verstappen in F1?

The 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 Series title winner, Rowland progressed to GP2 and also spent time in the Renault and Williams driver academies, but after a P3 finish in the first Formula 2 Championship after the GP2 rebrand, Rowland moved into endurance racing and Formula E, with FE soon becoming his focus having appeared in every season since 2018.

A P4 finish in the latest 2023–24 Championship is Rowland’s best yet, a season in which he comfortably had the beating of Nissan team-mate Sacha Fenestraz.

And in the Frenchman’s opinion, Rowland is the equal of reigning three-time Formula 1 World Champion Max Verstappen, who leads the F1 2024 Drivers’ Championship by 52 points over Lando Norris as he chases a fourth consecutive title.

“Oliver is easily as good as Verstappen,” Fenestraz claimed to the Dutch edition of Motorsport.com.

Apparently, Rowland is also Verstappen’s good mate, as Fenestraz divulged an intriguing admission which he claimed to have heard Verstappen make to Rowland.

“He is good friends with Verstappen and this year Verstappen said to him that it is a pity he is not racing in Formula 1. This is because he thinks he would be overshadowed by Oliver,” Fenestraz claimed.

“So people in motorsport know what his potential is.”

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While the early stages of F1 2024 suggested a fresh season of Verstappen dominance was on the cards, the Dutchman has now gone eight races without a win, as he looks to see off the challenge of McLaren driver Norris, who further boosted his hopes of mounting a title challenge with a dominant victory in Singapore.

Six rounds remain for Norris, with a lot riding on his title quest for Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds, who will be giving $250,000 to a charity of Norris’ choosing if he is successful in dethroning Verstappen.

During an interview with FE’s UK and Ireland broadcaster TNT Sports before the F1 2024 campaign began, Dodds gave Verstappen a “99 per cent” chance of this year winning his fourth consecutive title.

He continued: “I’ll tell you what, so if he doesn’t win it, there are 19 other drivers, if any one of the other 19 drivers win it, we’ll give a quarter of a million dollars to the charity of choice of the driver that does win it.

“It wouldn’t be the worst day in the office to give a load of money to charity, but absolutely, he is nailed on to win that season.”

Six grands prix and three sprints remain for Norris in his bid to prove that theory wrong.