Porsche recently targeted and held serious discussions with Oliver Rowland in an attempt to lure the runaway 2025 Formula E points leader away from Nissan to partner Pascal Wehrlein next season.
The Race can reveal that the audacious attempt to secure Rowland's services was extensively discussed between Porsche, Nissan, Rowland and his management team.
The sensational swoop had its roots in both a genuine interest in Rowland and Porsche's increasingly complex short-term driver situation, as it looks to solidify a long-term team-mate alongside reigning champion Wehrlein.
Porsche signed Nico Mueller to its books for 2025 and has tentative and conditional plans to introduce him to the factory Formula E team either next season or the one after.
Those plans remain fluid for two key reasons. The first is that it has an option to run Antonio Felix da Costa for a fourth season in 2025-26, and the other is that Mueller has been on the whole disappointing for Porsche customer team Andretti this season.
Da Costa and Porsche though have a fraught relationship, which first manifested itself in late 2023 when da Costa was essentially benched from completing a dual programme in the World Endurance Championship. That was followed by Mueller testing for the factory team in-season in March 2024, which triggered a frosty period between da Costa and senior management within the team.
With da Costa now believed to have several significant offers from elsewhere in the paddock, Porsche moved to contact Rowland last month to hold talks.
Those talks are understood by The Race to have been serious and prompted an offer for Rowland. The Race understands that this was for multiple seasons, included a compensatory fee to Nissan for Rowland leaving a season early, and would also have included the offer for Rowland to potentially be part of endurance racing programmes in the future should they be available.
Rowland considered the offer carefully but ultimately elected to sign a new multi-year deal with Nissan. An announcement regarding this is expected to come before the end of the current season.
Da Costa meanwhile is weighing up offers from multiple teams, including Jaguar. But more vital right now is if and when Porsche might trigger its option on him and how that will be negotiated to resolve his and Porsche's future plans.
Why Rowland is staying at Nissan
Rowland's rise from unhappy also-ran at Mahindra in early 2023 to dominant race winner and overwhelming championship favourite just two years later is Formula E’s biggest turnaround. Framing that is important as it will have been a major reason in why he was not ultimately seduced by Porsche, one of motorsport's most respected and glamorous brands.
It was Rowland who saw an opportunity at Nissan where a team could be built up around him. The level of his understanding with his side of the garage, in conjunction with Tommaso Volpe's overview and team director Dorian Boisdron’s operational lead, has developed into Formula E's tightest and most devastatingly successful winning unit.
Even the allure of Porsche was not sufficient for Rowland to destabilise that as he looks to become only Formula E's second British champion and also quite likely its second multiple champion given the high chance his 2025 form can continue into the following campaign.
Additionally, Rowland is a clever driver who can think several steps ahead not only in the car but also out of it. Why would you go to a team with another similarly wily character (Wehrlein) within it, and one who so clearly is a favoured son there?
Rowland will also be very aware of what happened the last time he left Nissan, accepting a more lucrative offer at the time from Mahindra. That was in early 2021 while he was still at a much more chaotic Nissan squad, which at the time was planning its metamorphosis from part e.dams-managed entity to a fully fledged, 100% manufacturer outfit.
The Mahindra move turned into an unfolding nightmare as internal tumult, a lack of vision, a poor initial Gen3 package and a fresh approach from the new-look Nissan conspired to initially turn his head. When Rowland suffered bruising in a serious Gen3 testing shunt at Mallory Park in 2022, triggered by a self-inflicted Mahindra issue via the powertrain design, Rowland's attention started to turn away from plotting a future with that manufacturer.
That career mistake left an indelible mark on Rowland who, having turned 30 that year, recognised that he was running out of time to find a team where he could build a race- and title-winning legacy.
Porsche's idiosyncratic philosophy of managing its drivers might have been seen as a risk for Rowland. That strategy has worked on many occasions for Porsche, with it being by far the most successful Gen3 manufacturer in terms of race wins.
However, on the other hand it has also caused difficulties too, particularly with da Costa, who has been largely unsettled despite scoring five wins and contributing significantly to team-mate Wehrlein's title last season.
But there's been a notable cooling of the da Costa-Wehrlein relationship this season, with the two barely communicating since the start of the campaign.
That case study would have been fresh in Rowland's mind when the Porsche approach was forthcoming and talks occurred, then ended, last month - particularly on the point of how he'd fit within a team that holds Wehrlein in such high regard.
So, why would Rowland leave the team he is being so successful at right now? He'd be a fool if he did.
He's firmly the main man at Nissan. That in turn allows his racing tactics and calls to be dynamic and fluid, a philosophy that many other teams only promote through their managerial and engineering structure and not via the drivers themselves.
