Born in Barnsley, Rowland began karting at the age of seven, spending a decade competing in various United Kingdom classes. He finished second in the Super 1 National Cadet Championship in 2002, then won the title in the following two years. In 2005 he moved into the JICA class, finishing as runner-up, just two points behind Will Stevens.
Rowland stepped into car racing in 2010, contesting the Formula Renault UK Winter Series with CRS Racing. His graduation into car racing was funded by the Racing Steps Foundation. He took two twelfth-place finishes on debut at Snetterton before winning the final race of the championship at Pembrey.
For 2011 he joined Fortec Motorsport for a full British championship campaign. A run of four consecutive third-place podiums mid-season was followed by a strong finish: four wins, four fastest laps, three pole positions and three second places in his final seven races. Rowland won the Graduate Cup and finished runner-up to teammate Alex Lynn in the main championship. The runner-up position was clinched on the final lap of the final race by setting the quickest lap to move into a tie on points with Tio Ellinas, then prevailing on countback of wins (four to two). He also comfortably won the Formula Renault UK Finals Series that year with four wins from six races. His performances earned him the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award on 4 December 2011, carrying a £100,000 prize and a Formula One test with McLaren.
Rowland was part of the McLaren young driver programme from 2007 to 2010.
Rowland signed with Fortec Motorsport in July 2013 to race the Formula Renault 3.5 Series in 2014, finishing fourth overall with two wins and seven podiums. He remained with Fortec for 2015, winning eight races from 17 and clinching the championship in the penultimate round. Leading the series that year also earned him a test with Red Bull at Silverstone.
In 2015 Rowland made his GP2 debut at Silverstone with MP Motorsport, finishing in the points in both races and contesting three further rounds with MP and Status Grand Prix. For 2016 he competed full-time with MP, finishing ninth. He moved to DAMS for the 2017 season and finished third in the championship.
In February 2016 Rowland joined the Renault young driver programme; in April 2017 he was signed as development driver to the Renault F1 Team. In February 2018 he was confirmed as official Junior Driver for Williams Martini Racing.
Rowland competed in the 2015 Punta del Este ePrix with Mahindra Racing as a replacement for Nick Heidfeld, who required surgery for ligament damage sustained during the Putrajaya ePrix. Rowland started 16th and finished 13th. He also served as a studio pundit for the television broadcast at some of the remaining races that season.
During the 2016–17 season Rowland was hired by Renault e.Dams as a standby replacement for Sébastien Buemi at the 2017 Mexico City ePrix.
In November 2018 Rowland joined the championship full-time with the newly rebranded Nissan e.Dams following the departure of Alexander Albon to Toro Rosso. He claimed his first Formula E pole position at the Sanya ePrix and finished second in the race — his first podium in the series. He took his first Formula E victory at the 2020 Berlin ePrix, leading every lap after starting from pole.
Rowland moved to Mahindra Racing for the 2021–22 season. He took his first points finish for the team at the 2022 Diriyah ePrix and retired from the inaugural Jakarta ePrix after losing a tyre on the second lap. He remained with Mahindra for 2022–23 alongside Lucas di Grassi, who replaced Alexander Sims. Ahead of the Jakarta ePrix that season Rowland parted ways with Mahindra with immediate effect; Roberto Merhi was drafted as his replacement.
Rowland reunited with Nissan for the 2023–24 season alongside Sacha Fenestraz. He scored seven podiums, two pole positions and two wins, finishing fourth in the championship with 156 points, significantly outscoring Fenestraz who finished 17th with 26 points.
For 2024–25 Rowland was joined by Norman Nato, who replaced Fenestraz. In the opening round at São Paulo, Rowland controlled a large part of the race before receiving a late drive-through penalty for overpower that left him 14th. He claimed his first win of the season in Mexico City by passing António Félix da Costa with attack mode. At Jeddah race 1 he was passed by Maximilian Günther moments before the finish line and took second; he won race 2 by a six-second gap to Taylor Barnard. Despite falling from fourth at the flag to tenth in Miami — one of several drivers who failed to complete attack mode before the end — he retained the championship lead.
At Monaco race 1 he claimed the lead by arming attack mode later than the other frontrunners and won. He took pole for race 2 and finished second behind Sébastien Buemi. At Tokyo race 1 he qualified on pole but finished second, with Stoffel Vandoorne having benefited from a well-timed red flag; on Sunday he took pole again and won race 2 after fights with Pascal Wehrlein, Dan Ticktum, and Taylor Barnard — his fourth win of the year. After finishing fifth and 13th across the Shanghai races he sat 68 points ahead of Wehrlein at the top of the standings.
At Jakarta he was penalised for causing a collision with Günther and classified tenth. In Berlin race 1 he retired after hitting Vandoorne in the closing stages. In race 2 he finished fourth, claiming the championship two races early.
Rowland signed a multi-year deal to continue with Nissan into the 2025–26 season alongside Nato.
In 2018 Rowland competed for Manor Motorsport in the FIA World Endurance Championship season, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
This article is based solely on the supplied corpus. No external sources were consulted; claims that could not be substantiated against the corpus were omitted under the drop-the-claim rule.
Gallery · 4 related images
