Oliver Rowland moves into GP2 as part of Renault Sport Academy

The 23-year-old Racing Steps Foundation protege made two GP2 appearances with MP Motorsport alongside his dominant FR3.5 campaign last year, qualifying on the front row at Spa.

"Having worked and lived with the MP Motorsport guys in the Netherlands throughout my second year in [FRenault] Eurocup, we developed a really strong relationship which I hope we can capitalise on in GP2 this year," said Rowland.

"We quickly re-established that productive partnership with a half decent debut at Silverstone last July.

"So I hope we can start where we left off and make a strong impression in the paddock in 2016."

Rowland returned to GP2 with Status for the final two rounds after sealing the FR3.5 title, and had also been linked to ART and Prema during the winter.

He told Autosport last year that getting , and was delighted to be taken under Renault's wing.

"Many drivers have benefited hugely from Renault's previous academies and I intend to take this opportunity with both hands," he said.

MP only has one GP2 win to its name so far, in the Sochi sprint race in 2014 with Marco Sorensen, and team manager Sander Dorsman acknowledged that signing Rowland increased expectations.

"We are acutely aware that for him this is a make or break year in terms of his Formula 1 aspirations," said Dorsman.

"So we will be doing everything in our power to ensure we engineer a car that will enable him to deliver."

Rowland was one of four initial members of the Renault academy announced at the manufacturer's F1 team launch on Wednesday.

It will also back FRenault 2.0 graduates Jack Aitken and Kevin Jorg in their GP3 programmes with Arden and DAMS respectively, and Formula V8 3.5 driver Louis Deletraz, who is racing for Rowland's former team Fortec this year.


Sergey Sirotkin
Jordan King
Alex Lynn, Nicholas Latifi
Mitch Evans, Sean Gelael
Raffaele Marciello, Artem Markelov
Arthur Pic
Oliver Rowland
Antonio Giovinazzi, Pierre Gasly