Rickard Rydell hopes for more WTCC outings

Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden’s Rickard Rydell hopes to make more appearances in this year’s WTCC after his currently planned one-off race at Monza, but the Swede’s primary focus is on defending his STCC crown in 2012.

Rydell qualified fifth on the grid just behind the three works Chevrolets and Gabriele Tarquini’s SEAT at Monza, and finished just off the podium in the first race in fourth and currently sits sixth in the Championship standings.

“I’m glad to come back to come back here and race at Monza because I like the Championship, I think it’s a good Championship and now with more manufacturers coming in I think there’s a good future for the WTCC,” said Rydell to TouringCarTimes.

“The team, Chevrolet Motorsport Sweden, has an ambition to do more, so it was a perfect opportunity to come here and just to see how they perform against the World teams; and I must say there’s a lot of new people in the team, including my engineer who’s not worked in touring cars. For us it was a little bit like a shake down for STCC. Maybe it’s a little bit tough to go to the World Touring Cars and prepare for the Swedish Championship, it should probably be the other way around.”

“We know that we have some things to work on to get better, but having said that we’re really pleased to qualify three-tenths from the fastest Chevy, also be fourth in the first race and to set the fastest lap is really good, so for us it’s a very good weekend.”

“I had a problem at the start of the second race plus brake problems all the way through…so in the race I was helpless.”

“We learned a lot and we feel much better prepared for the Swedish championship now to have done this.”

Currently, Rydell’s Monza apperanace is the only WTCC meeting planned by the team this year, which last ran two races in 2010 with cars for Leonel Pernía and Vincent Radermecker at Monza and Zolder, but Rydell doesn’t count out further races this season:
“I’d like to, as a driver. I just drive for Chevrolet and Nicklas Karlsson, who runs the team, he’s the man making the decisions, and if there’s an opportunity, I’m sure he would like to do more rounds in the WTCC. Which rounds and if we do any I don’t know. At the moment we haven’t planned to do any more but if something comes together I think he’s keen to do it.”

The 2012 Scandinavian Touring Car Championship kicks off in May at Mantorp Park, though the size of the grid is set to be reduced following the departure of four of the Championship’s teams to form the separate TTA series.

“It’s a shame that there is a split, but I’m quite sure that there will be 15 cars in the STCC or more, and 15 cars or more is going to be a good Championship,” said Rydell.

“The support series looks really strong; the Camaros have loads of cars, 25 or 30 cars, and the Motorcycles is already 30 or something, so I think the STCC can put on a good show…but of course I’m also not happy that they couldn’t stick together, especially since the STCC 2011 was so good.”