Rickard Rydell

John Rickard Rydell (born 22 September 1967) is a retired Swedish racing driver.

In 1984–1985, he won the Swedish 100cc go kart championship.

In the early 1990s, he raced in various Formula Three series.

In 1990, he raced in F3000.

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.

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 due to several slow starts he won only 4 times and he finished on podium 7 times.

At the end of the year he was third in the championship, a result repeated in 1996 although Audi dominated with Frank Biela he was able to score 4 victories and 6 podium.

In 1997 Volvo switch from 850 saloon to new model Volvo S40, at the end of year he was fourth with 1 victory and 5 podium.

He won the 1998 British Touring Car Championship, the 2011 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and has also been a frontrunner in the European/World Touring Car Championship.

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 1998, he finally won the BTCC title in a Volvo with 5 victories and 12 podium, beating Anthony Reid at the final meeting.

He also won the 1998 Super Touring Bathurst 1000, sharing a Volvo S40 with Jim Richards.

In 1999 he was again third behind the two Nissan Primera with 4 victories and 7 podium.

After five years with Volvo, he was loaned to Ford (Prodrive) for 2000 where he finished for the fourth time in seven years third behind his two teammates Alain Menu and Anthony Reid.

He spent 2001 largely waiting for his ETCC Volvo S60 to be built, but he raced a Ferrari 550 Maranello in the FIA GT Championship for the Prodrive team.

In 2002 he raced in the ETCC finishing 5th with 8 podiums while in 2003, without official Volvo's support, he finished just 11th with only 2 podiums.

He moved to SEAT's SEAT Sport team in 2004 for the ETCC driving Seat Toledo Cupra ending 10th with 1 victory and 1 podium.

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

SEAT and Rydell continued in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) when it replaced the ETCC for 2005.

He finished sixth in the championship, winning race two at Silverstone and 4 podium.

He continued with SEAT for 2006, finishing seventh, with just 4 podium.

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 Chevrolet team and a local hero guest driver.

He won the second race of the day, ahead of teammates Nicola Larini and Alain Menu ignoring the team order not to attack their teammate, in particular Larini who was fighting for the title championship and losing the opportunity to continue with RML until the end of the season.

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.

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.

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

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 Chevrolet 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:

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.

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 Chevrolet.