Rickard Rydell

Infobox racing driver
name = Rickard Rydell

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pixels = 222px
caption = In 2006, as a WTCC driver
nationality = flagicon|Sweden Swedish
date of birth = Birth date and age|1967|09|22
place of birth = Stockholm
related to =
current series = World Touring Car Championship
first year = 2005
current team = SEAT Sport
car number = 10
former teams =
starts =
wins =
poles =
fastest laps =
best finish =
year =
prev series = Swedish F3 British F3 International Formula 3000 British F3 All-Japan F3 British Touring Car Championship FIA GT Championship European Touring Car Championship
prev series years = 1987–1988 1989 1990 1991 1992–1993 1994–2000 2001 2002–2004
titles = British Touring Car Championship
title years = 1998
awards =
award years =

Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967 in Stockholm) is a Swedish racing driver. He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Championship.

Early career

In the early 1990s, Rydell raced in various Formula Three series. He also won pole position in the 1991 Macau Grand Prix, and won the 1992 race. He competed in Japanese F3 in 1992 and 1993, British F3 in 1989 and 1991, and the Swedish F3 series in 1987 and 1988. In 1990, he raced in F3000. In 1984–1985, he won the Swedish 100cc go kart championship.

Touring car

BTCC

His first year in the BTCC was 1994, when his car was quite distinctive, driving a Volvo 850 Estate, when it was normal to race saloons. The TWR team switched to a saloon in 1995 and Rydell took pole for 13 of the 24 races, but several slow starts contributed to him winning only 4 times and finishing 3rd in the championship, a result repeated in 1996, 1999 and 2000. After five years with Volvo, he was loaned to Ford (Prodrive) for 2000.

In 1998, he won the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in a Volvo, beating Anthony Reid at the final meeting. He also won the 1998 Super Touring Bathurst 1000, sharing a Volvo S40 with Jim Richards.

He spent 2001 largely waiting for his European Touring Car Championship Volvo to be built, but he raced a Ferrari 550 Maranello in the FIA GT Championship for the Prodrive team. In 2002 and 2003, he raced in the ETCC with works support for 2002 but as a privateer a year later.

In 2004 he took part in two races in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, claiming one victory.

WTCC

He joined SEAT's SEAT Sport team in 2004 for the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC), and the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) when this replaced it for 2005.

2007

Rydell finished 7th in the 2006 World Touring Car Championship, but lost his SEAT drive, and instead drove an Aston Martin DBR9 with the Prodrive team in the GT Championship following last working with the team then using Ferrari's in 2004.

Rydell raced in the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans with David Brabham and Darren Turner and they won in the GT1 class.

On the WTCC Saturday 28th July weekend in Anderstorp, Sweden, Rydell returned to the category as a fourth driver for the Cheverolet team and a local hero guest driver. He won the second race of the day, ahead of team-mates Nicola Larini and Alain Menu.

Prior to the last event of the 2007 WTCC calendar in Macau, Rydell was chosen by the SEAT Sport team to race for them as an additional driver to help the team take home at least one of the main championships, either the Driver's championship via SEAT's Yvan Muller winning, or the Manufacturer's championship. The weekend though did not set off as planned, due to Rickard starting 14th on the race 1 grid and Yvan Muller started 2nd behind the eventual winner of the first race Alain Menu in the RML run Cheverolet. Rickard finished 11th in the first race with Yvan Muller leading 8 of the 9 laps of the race, but due to a fuel pressure problem Muller's race weekend ended on the 8th lap even before he was able to get to the pits. During the second race Rickard had a much better race than the first as he finished in 6th, but unfortunately his efforts were not enough to help SEAT clinch the Manufacturer's crowns, as the championship went to the reigning Manufacturer's champions BMW.

2008

On 6 December 2007 it was confirmed on Autorsport.com that Rydell had been signed by SEAT as one of their drivers in their five strong driver line up for an assault on the 2008 WTCC season. Rydell has also been contracted to compete in the 2009 season as well. Rydell on his website stated that he is more than happy to be back with SEAT in WTCC. And said that: ”There are many good drivers in the championship. SEAT was close winning both manufacturers’ and drivers’ championships this year. Hopefully we will go all the way in 2008.”

In a recent Interview with Touringcartimes.com Rydell said that this season was the most suitable for him to go for the drivers championship: "This is my best chance to win the WTCC. It is great to be back with SEAT and I really feel at home," said Rydell. "The car is competitive and we should have good chances to win both the drivers and manufacturers championship. But it will not be easy to win the drivers title, I have for example four strong team mates that also want to win," said Rydell. "The series is as tough as ever. In the top it will be between SEAT, BMW and Chevrolet. But I also thing that Honda can score some good results with Thompson," said Rydell.

If he does win the championship it will be his second major Touring car championship in 10 years after winning the British Touring Car Championship in 1998 with TWR Volvo.

At the 11th round of the championship, at the Estoril race track in Portugal, Rickard won the race becoming the last of the SEAT Factory drivers to have one win under his belt for the 2008 season, as Rickard has won 3 races overall in WTCC, 2 for SEAT, 1 for Cheverolet and he holds the record for the first win for SEAT in the WTCC at Oschersleben in 2005.

It is Inevitable now that Rickard will not be able to Win the WTCC in 2008 as there are only 40 points up for grabs, and Rickard is now 33 points behind, when Rickard would have been alot closer had he been given a Lenient penalty as Gabriele Tarquni for a similar infringement on the rules. The penalty that Rickard obtained was a 30 second penalty dragging him down the finishing order in the first race of Monza being 3rd, down to 16th, whereas Gabriele got a 5 place grid drop for the first race of the next event in Okayama, from where he first qualified. If Rickard had kept the 3rd position, he would only be 27 points behind, but with the way in which he moved up the order in the Second race (From 16th to 9th), he might have been contending for another podium position.

External links

* [http://www.rickardrydell.com/ Official website]
* [http://www.btccpages.com/driv/rydellrickard.php BTCC - Rydell]
* [http://www.driverdb.com/racingdriver524.html Career statistics] at Driver Database