Meet Andreas Bäckman
Andreas got his karting license in 2005 at Luleå’s karting school in Sweden. He started his racing career the year after in the North Swedish Championship, and soon drove in many races in Sweden before he started his international career in 2010. In the years that followed Andreas raced around the world, with competitions and successes in Spain, France, Belgium, Germany, England, Portugal, Las Vegas and New Orleans. During 2014–2016 he drove for the factory-team Kosmic, in the Formula 1 of Karting.
– I had hoped for better results, but the experience I got was overall very positive with the tough competition in mind. I learned a lot for the future.
In 2017 Andreas started with rallycross. With a new track surface, a new driving technique required and significantly shorter races.
– I really enjoyed the step up to rallycross, both with the challenge with all-new conditions in mind, but also since the sport has grown so much within the racing world. As the trend is heading towards mastering more disciplines, rallycross gave me a lot of valuable experiences such as car control.
In 2018, Andreas took the step up to Racing and started to compete in Touring Cars. During the season he competed in STCC, Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, and also in the British counterpart TCR UK. He also did an appearance in the European series TCR Europe, where he later on competed and achieved one win and two consecutive pole-positions in 2019.
– Finishing the 2019 season as fourth in the TCR Europe championship with one win and two straight pole-positons was over my expectations.
In 2022, Andreas had a very good year in STCC, he fought for the championship title for a long time but had a lot of bad luck and finished in 3rd place in the championship with 3 wins and 9 podiums.
– 2022 was a good year, it was fun to be back and compete at home after many years of international competition.
In 2023, Andreas will change direction from TCR to GT racing. Andreas will compete in ADAC GT4 Germany together with PROsport Racing. Which means new car model, driving style, race format. Andreas will drive an Aston Martin GT4 car and share a car with his sister Jessica Bäckman, where it will be twice as long races and with a mandatory driver change after half the race.
– It will be fun to try something new, will be a challenge, but at the same time exciting. Fun sharing a car with my sister, we learn a lot from each other so together we have a strong lineup that I think will go a long way.
What of your previous experiences did you bring to GT4?
– Racing is more like karting and it’s great to be back on the track with more grip. International karting is probably the best school for racing, from where I mainly bring race techniques and experiences from shifter karts, where I learned standing starts and gear shifting. Rallycross taught me how to handle fewer laps where, like in GT4, it’s important to be ready already from the start!
How was your racing-debut at Silverstone in the beginning of 2018?
– There’s a lot of people who wants autographs and then there’s a big media coverage with interviews and other attention. Everything is so much bigger, and the sport has a very good reputation in the media.
What kind of racing driver are you?
– My main strength is that I’m consistent, which means I usually always reach top results. I’m constantly working on improving my lowest level to become as good as I possibly can. In addition, I spend a lot of time on physical training and following all motorsport – it’s my way of keeping up-to-date.
What are your goals in the future?
– My main goal for 2023 is to watch and learn, and to fight for the top positions at the end of the year. In the long run, I want to challenge the competition and become the best racing driver in the world. To reach that point, I need to be able to do this for a living so that I can focus on continuing my development.
How is it to drive for team racing one?
– To have the opportunity to race for racing one in GT4 European Series feels very good, as they have a lot of expereince of international GT-racing.