Patrik Sandell

Biography

Sandell's motorsport interest sparked as a teenager. He first tried rallycross at 16 and ran his first rally at 17. In 2004, he won the Swedish Junior Championship, and followed that with the Swedish Group N3 title in 2005. The next year, Sandell entered the Junior World Rally Championship and secured the championship with one win and three podiums from six starts.

Over the following years, he raced in the JWRC, Production World Rally Championship, and Super 2000 World Rally Championship, earning victories in all three classes. He became a Red Bull athlete in 2009 and won his first two PWRC starts that year in Norway and Cyprus. In 2012, Sandell debuted with the Mini WRC Team at Rally Sweden, finishing eighth—his career-best WRC result. After BMW terminated its contract with Prodrive, Sandell did not race in the WRC after 2012.

For 2013, he moved to the Global RallyCross Championship with Olsbergs MSE, earning his first podium at X Games Brazil and finishing sixth in points. He replicated that points finish in 2014, also taking his first career win at RFK Stadium that June. In 2015, Sandell switched to Bryan Herta Rallysport, winning once each in 2015 and 2016. He joined Subaru Rally Team USA for 2017, finishing eighth in points with his first podium of the season at the first Atlantic City round.

In 2018, he continued with the team in the newly established Americas Rallycross series, placing third in points, and also returned to stage rally for three American Rally Association events, winning all three. Sandell continued in Americas Rallycross for the rebranded Subaru Motorsports team in 2019.