Rickard Rydell

Early career

Rydell was born in Vallentuna, Stockholm. Initially he trained to be an accountant at AB Rydell, his family's flower boutique business, but was bitten by the racing bug. In the early 1990s, he 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.

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.

He joined SEAT's SEAT Sport team in 2004 for the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC). In 2004 he also took part in two races in the Swedish Touring Car Championship, claiming one victory.

2005 season

SEAT and Rydell continued in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) when it replaced the ETCC for 2005. He finished fifth in the championship, winning race two at Silverstone.

2006 season

He continued with SEAT for 2006, finishing seventh, without a win.

2007

Rydell lost his SEAT drive for 2007, and instead drove an Aston Martin DBR9 with the Prodrive team in the GT Championship having previously worked with the team when 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 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 season

Rydell was re-signed by SEAT as one of their drivers in their five strong driver line up for an assault on the 2008 WTCC season. Rickard finished fifth in the final standings, winning once at Estoril and once at Okayama.

2009 season

Rickard raced for SEAT yet again in 2009, winning at Puebla and finishing seventh overall in the final standings.

2011 season

Rickard Rydell returns to racing after a year as a commentator of the STCC for Swedish TV. He was signed to Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden team with the Cruze joining as team with his teammate Viktor Hallrup a developmental driver for the team in his second season with the team, with first season being with the Lacetti. Rickard came in as a booster driver for Cheverolet Sweden to gain results for the team as their developmental driver was still not up to speed with the top runners. Rickard won the title* at the last race of the season at Mantorp by just 2 points to Frederik Ekblom.

The two pieces of evidence that Volkswagen Team Biogas.se brought in: Photo and Video, both illustrated on touringcartimes.com

This is Rydell Second National Touring car title after the BTCC championship in 1998, although he won the Bathurst 1000 that year also which was his last touring car title before his return to form in 2011.

Next year he will be defending his STCC title however, Frederik Ekblom will not be contesting in the STCC as he has signed with Volvo Polestar in the silhouette touring car championship run by the TTA which is based on a Volvo C30 chassis and many teams and successful Swedish drivers, i.e. Jan "Flash" Nilsson and Richard Göransson [1], who were STCC BMW drivers in the 2011 season.

2013 season

Rydell joined NIKA Racing for the 2013 FIA WTCC Race of China to drive their Chevrolet Cruze 1.6T.

In a 2005 poll run by Motorsport Magazine, Rydell was voted 18th greatest touring car driver of all time.

Rydell announced his retirement from motorsport in early 2016.

Complete International Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Complete Japanese Formula 3000 results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded 1996 onwards in all races) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point given)

Complete Swedish Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete World Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Scandinavian Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)