Rydell joins Seat Sport for the 2008 season

Seat plans to field five cars in the upcoming WTCC – World Touring Car Championship – season and hopes to compete with BMW with its new recruit, Rickard Rydell.

SEAT Sport announced that they will once again campaign for the five-car teams participating in the 2008 FIA WTTC. Richard Rydell, who drove for the Spanish manufacturer during the 2006 season and made an appearance this year at the final event in Macau, returns to the team alongside four established drivers: Jordi Gené, Tiago Monteiro, Yvan Muller – the 2007 world vice-champion – and Gabriele Tarquini.

This year, Seat finished second in the constructors’ championship as well as in the drivers’ standings after competing for the title until the last race in Macau.

In the same season, Seat forever left its mark in the championship by securing the first victories for a Diesel car in a FIA World Championship. This Leon TDi will be challenged next season by the BMW 320si and the Chevrolet Lacetti, with Alfa no longer participating as a manufacturer, but only as an individual.

Jaime Puig, the director of SEAT Sport, is delighted: « Next year, we will have a team of five experienced drivers who have all tasted the joys of the podium and have already started from pole position. I am certain that we will be very competitive once again and we will do everything possible to win the constructors’ and drivers’ titles. »

According to the WTCC