The self-confessed nightmare who earned a final F1 shot

He was the epitome of a swashbuckling, mega-talented rising star who just needed the right break. And the right backer. The wild child with everything but the wallet to light up Formula 1.

It didn't happen. Well, it hasn't happened yet. But at least he'll finally get on track in a proper F1 opportunity this week, when the proteges of grand prix racing's biggest teams will be out in force in Spain.

Mercedes' George Russell, McLaren's Lando Norris, Ferrari's Antonio Giovinazzi and Renault's Jack Aitken are among the talent on display. But pay attention to Williams - and not just on the day Robert Kubica is driving.

If you've won races against Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz Jr, Stoffel Vandoorne, Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon, you deserve to be taken seriously as a Formula 1 prospect. So it's hard to believe that Oliver Rowland's first major chance is coming six years after his debut run in an F1 car. It's been a long time coming for the 2015 Formula Renault 3.5 champion.

His new-for-2018 Williams 'young driver' role has meant plenty of simulator time, but grabbing the test chance with both hands is Rowland's only shot at convincing the team, or perhaps someone else, that F1 is where he is meant to be. Yet there is zero selfishness, not even a flicker, on display as he talks to Autosport ahead of the test, which is his only guaranteed on-track outing of the year.

"The number one target has to be to do the job for the team," Rowland tells Autosport. "To get what they need data-wise, provide feedback. In the back of everyone's minds you want to do a good job time-wise, obviously that's there, but the priority is to keep things clean and get the data for the team.

"They are going to have a good idea of where I am [compared with race drivers Lance Stroll and Sergey Sirotkin, and Kubica]. On the simulator I know I do a good job. I'm fast and consistent, and I know I'm everything they wanted. I need to do the job on track, and see where I am compared with these guys."

If you've won races against Leclerc, Sainz, Vandoorne, Gasly and Ocon, you deserve to be taken seriously as an F1 prospect

Back in 2012 Rowland was the coming man, but a self-confessed nightmare. After a gilded karting career he'd won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award at the end of his first year of car racing and was rewarded with a trio of short runs in McLaren's MP4-26 at Silverstone.

The Williams programme this week is his first meaningful F1 appearance ever. Demonstrations in older machinery during a two-year spell as Renault's development driver are all that has punctuated the gap between the test that seemed to herald so much and the test that could be his last shot at F1.

Rowland was a protege of the Racing Steps Foundation until 2017, a long spell that highlights the incredible talent that made people back him and the funding shortfall that meant he desperately needed it. The budget situation hasn't changed. But Rowland has.

He says he's developed "quite a lot" from his formative years in cars, and the evidence before Autosport suggests he is all the better for that. Not that it came easy.

"Since I was 17 or 18 I was always fast and over time you start to learn to work a bit harder away from the track," he says. "I lost my dad when I was 18, so it was a difficult time for me. I was always told what to do by him and all of a sudden I didn't have that, so I had to work it out for myself.

"You grow up, and my approach now is a lot different in terms of how I work with engineers. I used to be a bit of a nightmare, I couldn't accept it if I wasn't fast enough."

The rockiness of Rowland's off-track world is severe. As well as losing his father in 2010, Rowland also had to cope with the death of karting guru Martin Hines, who had given Rowland belief and opportunity as a kid, a year later.

Then, after finishing a distant third in the Formula Renault Eurocup behind Vandoorne and Daniil Kvyat, he was dropped from the RSF programme in the winter of 2012/13.

Among other issues in that love-hate RSF relationship, Rowland had not committed properly to training. But this was merely a strategic move from the RSF to frighten Rowland. Aided by chairman of the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award judges, Derek Warwick, who felt a personal connection with the youngster, he got the wake-up call.

Rowland's career hadn't stagnated in that season, but it regained key momentum afterwards. He was narrowly beaten to the FR Eurocup title in 2013, then won races in FR3.5 the following year as the more experienced Sainz took the championship.

The FR3.5 crown went to Rowland a year later in dominant fashion, but the final step - to Formula 2 (or GP2 as it was in his first season) - was not as smooth as he would have liked.

"I kind of realised in F2 it's quite car dependent," he says, "and the more you start stressing you work against the team, rather than with them and giving them confidence.

"You slip backwards. My year with MP [in 2016], I was leading the championship halfway through the season but I knew we weren't fast enough. I pushed a little bit in the wrong way. When I got with DAMS [in '17] I started to understand a lot better how to work with the team. They filled me with confidence with how hard they worked."

Rowland and DAMS were the closest combination to the all-conquering Leclerc/Prema Racing powerhouse that swept to the 2017 F2 title, even though it's not reflected in the points. Rowland lost a win and a second place due to disqualifications, and retired from another race while leading. Those lost points wouldn't have enabled him to beat Leclerc, but would have put him a comfortable second.

"Everyone would say I pushed Charles closer than anybody and at times we were actually better than him," he says. "The team were pushing the limits and that's what I wanted them to do. I wouldn't say it was frustrating. To go to DAMS last year, make the development we did and progress, I actually quite enjoyed it.

"I realised quite quickly Prema were on a bit of a different level and we needed to hunt them and become better. If I'd done what Charles has done maybe it would have been a bit different - but you can't really think too much like that."

Some of Rowland's lessons have come from galling or devastating personal difficulties, others through experiences that are everyday elements of racing on the F1 ladder. What binds them is the impact they've had in shaping a rough diamond. And Williams is keen to see if he has retained his sparkle.

"We have a history of promoting and supporting young drivers," says chief technical officer Paddy Lowe. "We've got a range of new parts to try on Tuesday and Oliver is our first filter of those. We'll base quite a lot of our decisions [on] Tuesday night around that for Wednesday with Robert.

"It's a great opportunity for Oliver to show that discrimination and understanding around what he's testing, as well as seeing how he is on pace, which we shouldn't forget is still important."

"Williams need a step up, so I'm hoping they might take a punt" Oliver Rowland

Pace might sound like a problem for a driver getting behind the wheel of the Williams, which has looked the most recalcitrant of the 2018 F1 cars. Both its race drivers have found themselves facing the wrong way at times this year, in the wall or the gravel. But this is F1, where the finer details are essential, so there are plenty of ways to impress.

"You want to see good controlled driving, that combination of pace and consistency," Lowe explains. "It's very important in the modern F1 driver. Then the feedback: understanding what they are doing, their approach, their ability to analyse what's happening and make relevant comments about.

"Those are the things you need to effectively conduct experiments with a car on track. On Tuesday, we'll do an awful lot of running and it's all about comparing different things on the car and trying to learn about them and feed that into the programme. Those are the attributes you need of a driver to make that useful."

Rowland, for his part, is massively up for that challenge. He's no stranger to simulators, having conducted plenty of work for Renault over the past two years, and says it's something he enjoys.

The chance to put it into practice on track, which will determine whether Rowland gets a second shot in the post-Hungarian GP test in the summer, is the really exciting bit.

"I'm in the sim most weeks," he says. "There's a lot of stuff going on there and I enjoy developing the car, trying to correlate the car to the track. To be able to come here and do it and get a real good run on track, which is quite important for them, it's all going in the right direction."

Kubica's search for a dream F1 return after his life-changing injuries in 2011, and how Williams opted for Sirotkin to race alongside Stroll, is well-documented. But the Pole is not the only driver who sees Williams as a chance to force his way into a seat that seemed out of reach.

"It's difficult to know their situation," Rowland says of Williams. "Obviously, we're going to try to see what we can raise, but my job has to be to do the best I can do.

"Look at Valtteri Bottas: when he was here [as test driver in 2010-2012] he did a similar thing. He didn't race anything and focused on his development role here.

"That's what I'm looking at. I'm British, that helps in a British team. They need a step up, so I'm hoping they might take a punt."