Nissan and Formula E championship leader Oliver Rowland have lost a petition for review they lodged with the FIA over his Jakarta E-Prix penalty.
Rowland dropped from sixth to 10th in the last round - costing him seven points - with a five-second time penalty for an incident with DS Penske driver Max Guenther.
Guenther went into the Turn 13 wall after Rowland hit his right front tyre. The resulting suspension damage caused Guenther to retire from the race.
Rowland immediately pleaded his innocence on his radio saying: "I'm pretty sure by the way I didn't do anything wrong with Guenther and that he had damage before the corner."
But the stewards made their decision relatively quickly - within seven minutes and it being reported to them by race director Marek Hanaczewski.
Nissan gathered additional camera angles and a variety of other evidence to support a petition of review, something which is open to teams if they believe they have further evidence that could be looked at by stewards. This has to be done within a 96-hour period after the end of the race.
In the Rowland/Guenther Jakarta review that Nissan posted the following elements were presented as the petition:
- 'Car 7 (Guenther's) roll hoop onboard camera (view from above driver's helmet)'
- 'Car 7 sidepod onboard camera (view of the right hand side of the car)'
- Oliver Rowland and James Rossiter post-race e-pad discussion (race action review with e-pad functionality, including slow motion and selective zoom)' via the official TV feed.
The stewards determined from the petition review that the footage from Guenther's car did not offer 'significant or relevant' material to consider a change in decision.
The decision detailed that “it is often the case that the roll hoop camera of the overtaking car offers the most informative and decisive perspective. In this instance, the car 7 roll hoop onboard camera does not provide any new insight or alter the stewards' assessment.
“Rather, it confirms and supports their original conclusion that car 7 was touched by car 23 at Turn 13, which resulted in car 7 being forced onto the dirty section of the track and subsequently into the wall at the exit of Turn 13.”
They also said the selective zoom used in Rowland and Rossiter’s analysis in the TV broadcast “does not reveal any new information”.
“When making our original decision, we already had access to video footage that provided a very similar, if not identical, viewpoint, and we possessed the capability to zoom in on those images as needed," continued the decision text.
“Furthermore, the analysis and zoom presented during the post-race e-pad discussion primarily focus on the moment when car 7 makes contact with the wall. However, the stewards' decision is based on an earlier contact that occurred at Turn 13 (approximately at the apex of the corner).”
The decision that cost Envision Racing's Sebastien Buemi a podium was also put forward for a petition for review relating to his own incident with Edoardo Mortara's Mahindra, also at Turn 13, and the consequent penalty that dropped Buemi from third to eighth.
A hearing on that one is now scheduled for this Friday after new onboard camera evidence was provided.
The Race says
Changing results, a week after a race is never looked upon favourably but both Nissan and Envision believed that they had sufficient enough grounds and fresh evidence to warrant a try at achieving just that.
Both penalties felt harsh at the time on first viewing, although Rowland's in particular did look to involve a nudge on Guenther who then tagged the wall with his left rear, which damaged the driveshaft of his DS Penske and rendered him immobile. Nissan remains adamant that there was no such touch.
On any other track this would appear a slam dunk decision but the Jakarta circuit was very far from a normal track surface. Dirt, sand and sundry other grime made this the wettest dry race ever, in the sense that the track surface was so poor that there was essentially only one clean line through the corners.
When Rowland put a robust move on Guenther it appeared there was definitely contact but Nissan and Rowland were resolute that there was not and that Guenther was merely pushed out onto the skittish track surface and understeered into the wall and then rebounded into the Nissan.
The Race understands that a brief discussion between the two drivers took place on the way to the post-race media pen and that it was cordial, with Rowland expressing his opinion that there was no contact.
Rowland left Jakarta with a 69-point advantage which should be more than plenty for him to wrap up the title in the next event in Berlin at the earliest or to have no problem sealing it in the London finale.
But Formula E is a volatile game and who knows how significant those – as Nissan and Rowland will perceive it – lost seven points could be.
Some drivers and teams have recently expressed concern to The Race over the consistency of penalties being applied in Formula E, with drivers in particular wanting to discuss the so-called ‘moving under braking’ issue.
What might also be of some concern to teams is an apparent admission in the wording of the bulletin where it mentions Guenther’s rollhoop camera footage and how it “confirms and supports their original conclusion that car 7 was touched by car 23 at Turn 13, which resulted in car 7 being forced onto the dirty section of the track and subsequently into the wall at the exit of Turn 13”.
This reads as though a new element has been recognised - “being forced onto the dirty section of the track” - by the stewards. This is not detailed in the original decision.
But the wider picture is really the dismissal of the Rowland/Guenther and Buemi/Mortara reviews and how it may further amplify the topic of consistency, especially in light of another flashpoint that involved Rowland.
This came on lap 27 when Pascal Wehrlein made contact with the Nissan while attempting a move at Turn 7. Both cars half spun and lost time, with the incident investigated but no further action ultimately being taken.
At this stage of the race, had Wehrlein been adjudged to have committed an offence he would have likely been given a grid penalty for the Berlin E-Prix.
