Oliver Rowland says his Formula 1 test debut with Williams acts as motivation for his hopes of contending for a 2019 seat.
Rowland, the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 champion, held an affiliation with Renault last year, though his involvement extended to only a demonstration run in an old-spec car.
Having finished third in last year’s Formula 2 standings, Rowland linked up with Williams for 2018 as its official Young Driver, and has carried out extensive simulator duties.
Rowland is poised to contend the 2018/19 WEC campaign with the Manor squad – the team having sat out the season-opener amid cash flow problems – but received his first proper F1 test last week.
Rowland completed 121 laps in Williams’ FW41 on Tuesday and recorded a best time of 1:20.009.
When asked whether the test boosted his hopes for a seat, Rowland said: “Yeah definitely, and I think also provides motivation for the rest of the season.
“Obviously I’m doing LMP1 and a couple of other races but not so much like the years before when I’ve done F2 and World Series.
“I think the test definitely provides a bit of motivation for myself to go away and work hard for the rest of the year with the hope of getting a chance for next year.”
Rowland also expressed relief at getting the chance in a Formula 1 car, having accepted that, at 25, he is older than many others attempting to catch the eye of teams.
“From my side I think I’m just happy I managed to get a go and go through the test programme with a team,” he said.
“I’m quite old now – 25 – so I bring sort of a mature approach and didn’t want to do anything stupid.
“I was just happy to do a day in a proper F1 car on track with Lewis [Hamilton] and [Sebastian] Vettel and Max [Verstappen] and all those people, so it was quite a big day for me as well.”
Williams currently fields Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin in its race seats, with Robert Kubica acting as test/development driver.
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