Nations Cup for Sweden — and the stint from Italy 2015

On 25–26 July, before the individual championship has even begun, the Nations Cup is decided. It is the team event, where the drivers race for their country. The same equalised karts and the same track as always, but suddenly nothing is about you. It is about the team.

The stint I will never forget

My strongest Worlds memory is not the bronze from 2016. It is a stint in the Nations Cup in Italy 2015.

We were last when I got in the kart. Then everything clicked at once: the kart worked, the gaps opened up, and the field came closer with every lap. When I handed over, we were leading. My teammates did the job for the rest of the race, and when the chequered flag fell, Sweden was fifth overall. I don't remember those laps for the position — I remember them for the feeling of everything coming together exactly when the team needed it.

It taught me something I have carried ever since: with equalised equipment, the field is so tight that one good stint can move an entire team through the order. The margins are small, in both directions.

Close to the podium, time and again

I have raced the Nations Cup at every Worlds I have entered. In 2016 we were fifth again, and that time there was a genuine chance to win — but a mistake in one of the pit stops cost us it. 2017 brought another fifth place, and in 2018 the team finished sixth. Sweden has been just outside the podium year after year.

That is the gap we want to close this summer.

Sweden's 2026 squad

This year I race the Nations Cup together with Robin Fredriksson, Daniel Fredriksson and Philip Karlsson. Four drivers, one team, the same flag on the suit.

What the Nations Cup demands

The team event runs on a different logic than the individual championship:

• Every result counts for the nation. There are no dropped scores to hide behind. Everyone in the team has to deliver.
• The handovers decide. The right driver in the right stint, and a plan for when things don't go to plan. In 2016 it was a pit stop that decided it, so that lesson sits deep.
• The team perspective changes the decisions. A risk that is reasonable for yourself can be wrong for the team, and the other way around.

For Sweden

Racing with three crowns on the suit is something different from racing for yourself. No F1 driver races for their country. At the rental kart Worlds, we do — literally. On 25 July I am on the grid again, together with the team, and this time the goal is to take Sweden onto the podium.

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