Rydell: We have to be realistic

Rickard Rydell’s long wait to return to the FIA World Touring Car Championship is over.

The multiple touring car champion and WTCC race winner will tackle a full programme of races in a Honda Sweden-backed Civic WTCC run by NIKA Racing having last mounted an ever-present assault on the series in 2009.

And despite a lack of pre-season testing, Rydell has hopes of scoring podium finishes later in the year.

“I’ve been waiting for this weekend for the past year, and I’m truly excited about this brand new adventure with Honda – even though I’m well aware that we’re currently not where we want to be,” said the 47-year-old Swedish ace, who is trying out a new-generation TC1 car for the first time in 2015. “The delay of the car means that we haven’t completed a full testing programme. We would have needed four or five more days in the bag to learn about the set-up, but the one test we did manage to do was all positive.

“The TC1 is a lot faster than the type of car I used to race in the WTCC, but it has got similar weight distribution and I think it suits my driving style. Honda have been working hard over the winter to close the gap to Citroën, but we have to be realistic and, personally, I’d be happy if we can run in the upper half of the midfield in the early races. I’ve never driven the track here in Argentina and our rivals have a year’s experience of the new rules, so we do have a lot of catching up to do initially.”

Rydell continued: “My target for the season is to score at least two podiums, and while I would never underestimate the challenge ahead of us, I’m feeling quietly optimistic. We have got a very effective, strong team – just look at the history of where we’re coming from – and I’m convinced that there is real potential in this project.”

While Rydell has never raced at Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo before, he took part in a national touring car race in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires in 2004. However, with four laps remaining, he was forced to retire from second place.