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Interview: Patrik Sandell ‘All About The Win’ In 2016 GRC Season

By Brittany Frederick

Patrik Sandell prepares for competition at Red Bull Global Rallycross in Jacksonville, NC on 1 July, 2016. Photo Credit: Larry Chen/Courtesy of Red Bull GRC
Patrik Sandell prepares for competition at Red Bull Global Rallycross in Jacksonville, NC on 1 July, 2016. Photo Credit: Larry Chen/Courtesy of Red Bull GRC /
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Patrik Sandell is strictly about victory in the 2016 Red Bull Global Rallycross season. The hard-charging Swede told Beyond the Flag about his GRC outlook.

There’s only one thing that will make Patrik Sandell feel like a Red Bull Global Rallycross race has been worth it: the checkered flag.

“We’re all about the win,” the Bryan Herta Rallysport driver told Beyond the Flag. “That’s all that matters this year and we keep reminding ourselves about that when we see each other as a team, that we keep our eyes and focus on the target and that’s to win the championship.”

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“To do that we know we need to score points in every weekend and we need to be consistent,” Sandell continued.

“We don’t need to win all the races, but we need to be up there and not have any weekends without points, because that puts us in a bad position.

“That’s the idea, to be out there and not take too crazy risks to pass someone just to gain one position in the final.”

So far Sandell’s plan has paid off with a victory at GRC Dallas and a second place finish in the season opener at GRC Phoenix I. He currently sits fifth in the GRC championship standings with five races to go, 52 points back of leader Tanner Foust.

It’s Foust that Sandell told us he’s most impressed with this season. “He really stepped it up this year,” Sandell explained.

“His and my driving styles were very similar two years ago, and then I think he and his teammate [Scott Speed] have helped each other be faster together, because he has adapted and learned.”

But it’s not just the other drivers that Sandell has to conquer if he wants to bring home the GRC title for Herta. It’s also a shifting schedule that saw several races dropped, others added and the finals at MCAS New River II cancelled due to inclement weather.

How much do the off-track changes affect the GRC drivers?

“I would say I have learned in past years of motorsports that you just have to adapt to situations you get into,” Sandell told us. “If schedules are changing, I can’t do anything about it, so I just try to focus on things I can actually do anything about.”

One of those things is working better with his team this season. “It’s our second year together as a team, so I think that everyone now knows more what to expect from each other,” he continued.

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Yet even if they’re not on his team, Sandell told us that he enjoys the relationship he has with all of the regular GRC drivers.

“It’s good. They are all very nice,” he said. “Most of the drivers have been in this for a few years, so we kind of know each other and I think that helps and we’re a tight group.”

Which one driver would he most want to be on a road trip with?

“I want to take the whole group,” he laughed.

Perhaps that will come after the season. Right now, Sandell has a 2016 GRC championship to chase and he’s aware that means driving hard right up through the Oct. 9 season finale in Los Angeles. As he told us, “We know this series is never over until it’s over.”

Red Bull Global Rallycross Washington, D.C. airs live Jul. 30 at 2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT on NBC. Tickets for the race are still available at the league’s website.

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