Rowland in for Albon at test amid Toro Rosso talk
ByAutoSport
Published 19/10/2018 at 07:51 GMT
Williams Formula 1 young driver Oliver Rowland will run for Nissan e.dams in place of potential Toro Rosso signing Alexander Albon on the final day of pre-season Formula E testing.
Eurosport
Image credit: Eurosport
Rowland will use the car that 2018 F2 title contender Albon was scheduled to drive at Valencia this week, before the news broke that he is closing on a '19 Toro Rosso F1 drive.
Albon appeared in the FE paddock on Tuesday morning, but has not been seen since then. Team-mate Sebastien Buemi has completed all Nissan's on-track running solo so far.
Rowland arrived at Valencia ahead of the second day of running on Wednesday but told Autosport that he was not going to drive that day.
It is understood that Nissan is extremely frustrated with the Albon situation, which has developed just a week before FE teams must submit their 2018/19 driver line-ups to the FIA.
A Nissan statement supplied to Autosport regarding Albon's absence from the test on Tuesday read: "Alex is a talented young driver with a lot of potential and is sought after.
"We have ongoing discussions and are not able to make further comments at this time.
"We're focused on testing the car and getting the data we need to prepare for the first race."
Rowland has previous FE experience from the season two race in Punta del Este, where he stood in for the injured Nick Heidfeld at the Mahindra team and finished 13th.
The 26-year-old Briton is already known to e.dams having raced for its DAMS arm in F2 in 2017.
The situation has cost Nissan two days of valuable FE running, with Valencia the final time teams can test before the season gets under way with the Ad Diriyah ePrix in Riyadh on December 15.
The weather at Valencia on Friday is extremely wet, which may further reduce running.
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