The steely determination behind the WRC’s Solberg 2.0

You only have to catch a glimpse of an onboard inside a certain i20 Coupe tearing through a stage to instantly identify the famous parent of Hyundai’s newly-signed 2022 World Rally Championship young gun.

The familiar mouth open, edge of the seat driving style belongs to one rallying family, and next year the iconic Solberg name will be back at the forefront of rallying on a regular basis with Oliver Solberg.

In the early years of the new millennium, having made his factory WRC debut with Ford in 1999, Oliver’s father Petter Solberg became a WRC force and won over legions of fans. Not just with his sheer speed, which in 2003 made the Norwegian the only driver to beat Sebastien Loeb over a full season in his Citroen pomp, but with his heart-on-the-sleeve emotional persona too.

Fast forward two decades and now Solberg Jr is ready to follow in his father’s footsteps, having secured a part-time WRC factory drive for Hyundai in 2022. He will share the team’s third car with veteran Dani Sordo in a dream opportunity for the 2020 European Rally Championship runner-up.

The 20-year-old couldn’t have a better role model to follow than his father and it appears he’s very much cut from the same cloth - right down to that famous mouth open driving style.

“Of course it is natural,” Solberg tells Autosport. “I don’t think about when I’m driving. Maybe it is to just get some extra air in... It is like a restrictor. The more air, the faster it goes!”

Solberg gets his latest experience in a full-blown WRC car in Spain this weekend ahead of a partial campaign in Hyundai's third car in 2022

Photo by: Austral / Hyundai Motorsport

Jokes aside, Solberg has proven that it’s not only the driving style he’s replicated, but the skills too. At such a tender age, to convince Hyundai to entrust him with its new Rally1 hybrid machine from the start of its competitive life cycle when detailed feedback will be vitally important for development is no small feat.

To many, the Solberg name being back in the WRC may come as a surprise, but this is the result of a journey that started 12 years ago.

Having been brought up around rallying, it was perhaps inevitable that Solberg Jr would try his hand at some point.  He attended his first WRC event before he turned one at the 2002 Cyprus Rally, and by the time he was eight had begun competing in off-road karting, known as crosskarting. He won his first race and went on to secure multiple national Norwegian titles.

A switch to cars beckoned in the form of rallycross, a discipline in which Solberg's father won back-to-back world titles in 2014 and 2015. Oliver made his rallycross debut in Petter’s title-winning Citroen DS3 in the RallyX Nordic series, and won the series in 2018.

"Since I can remember, this sport is all I ever wanted to do. Nothing else. I am hearing people asking me questions, asking me about what’s happening next year and still I am a little bit pinching myself" Oliver Solberg

Simultaneously the teenager was making the first steps on the rally ladder in the Latvian Rally Championship, piloting first an R2 specification Peugeot 208 and then stepping up to R5 Volkswagen machinery. He won that title in 2019, aged 18.

It was last year where he truly made his mark, claiming a WRC3 class victory in Estonia and a second at Monza, prompting Hyundai to pick up Solberg for this season. The deal was initially for a WRC2 campaign, but it has since morphed into much more.

He impressed Hyundai boss Andrea Adamo in WRC2 and in several surprises call-ups to drive the WRC i20 coupe, most notably a head-turning run to seventh on his top flight debut at February’s Arctic Rally Finland. There was also a victory on the Italian tarmac of Rally Di Alba, going up against 2019 world champion and fellow Hyundai driver Ott Tanak. The fourth of those outings arrives this weekend at Rally Spain, days after receiving the news of his coveted promotion to the rank of WRC factory driver for 2022.

Aged just 20, Solberg has a big future ahead of him in the WRC

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“This really is the dream,” says Oliver. “Since I can remember, this sport is all I ever wanted to do. Nothing else. I am hearing people asking me questions, asking me about what’s happening next year and still I am a little bit pinching myself – it’s me they’re talking to. It’s me this is happening to.

“I understand the responsibility here and I will do everything I can to deliver for this fantastic team.

“But I also know that rallying is so much about experience. Every kilometre you drive, you are learning and I know I have a lot of kilometres to drive. There’s no way to take a shortcut or to cut a corner in this process of learning and taking experience – I have to do this step-by-step.”

It is this approach that has been the bedrock of his career to date, but Solberg Jr is quick to point out the climbing the ladder would not have been possible without the support provided by parents Petter and Pernilla.

Having a WRC and two-time World Rallycross champion that has trodden the same path in your corner is a hugely valuable resource for any driver. Petter's advice has played a pivotal role in Oliver's rise, even if he’s not always chosen to listen to it...

“Definitely [its a help],” he says. “[Petter] has so much experience from all of the races and still I do mistakes even if he tells me not to - so for sure, it is not all the time I listen to him.

“He helps me a lot and also my mother as well, as they have so much experience in the paddock and how everything should be done. Definitely it is important for me to have them around for some extra confidence and calmness to know everything is well.”

For Solberg Sr, watching his son climb the rally ladder is a chance to re-live a journey he made through the early 1990s as he fought to join the WRC, initially driving as a privateer before the opportunity arose to partner 1995 world champion Colin McRae at Ford. 

Solberg Sr has been by his son's side all the way through his career to date

Photo by: Subaru

Reflecting on Oliver’s performance this year, Solberg Sr says he has exceeded expectation and is immensely proud of what he’s achieved in a short space of time while learning as well.

“When he has done rallycross with 600 horsepower on the track, it is always a little bit different,” Petter tells Autosport. “But here on the stages, it is quite a bit of difference.

“We had a big discussion [prior to Arctic Rally Finland] about if we thought it was too early [to make a WRC debut]. It is easy for things to happen and they don’t go as perfect as you want when you coming into such a big event with half a day of testing.

“Winning in rallying is not easy and you need to take step by step. For sure it is a long way to go" Petter Solberg

“If you have a couple of days testing it would be different. But in the end, he went much better than any of us expected. It was absolutely crazy.

“You are always proud, for sure, but you are also very cautious because rallying is so different compared to any other motorsport. You can race in rallycross when you are 15 or 16 years old, but to get to the top class of WRC it take as lot of preparation and a lot of commitment and people behind you to give you time to build up.

“Winning in rallying is not easy and you need to take step by step. For sure, it is a long way to go.”

Despite having a world champion as a father, Petter says Oliver has not simply tried to copy his driving style, but analyse the core traits of the rallying’s most successful drivers and make his own decisions.

“I think he has been learning a bit from everybody,” explains Solberg Sr. “I think he has looked at lot at Sebastien Ogier’s style and Sebastien Loeb’s style and I think my style and Marcus Gronholm’s style.

Solberg made his debut in a full WRC car on Arctic Rally Finland, finishing seventh

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images

“I think you can take a little bit of everyone, like I did when I was young. I took a little bit from Carlos Sainz and little bit from Colin McRae, and maybe too much from Colin sometimes!

“This is the key thing, you have to be willing to learn. Oliver is very passionate and he loves this massively. He has evolved very well and his technical side is very good. He knows what he wants in the car.

“He goes in his own way, but if it is going in a direction I maybe have to have some discussion with him. You know how it is when you are 19 there is a lot of exploring.”

While Oliver is deadly serious about his rally career, he’s certainly inherited the fun-loving persona made famous by his father, which is now been played out through social media. Often partnered together, the pair have tried to bring rallying to the fans through a series of videos.

Motorsport is crying out for characters, but also drivers willing and brave enough to take fans into their world. The videos may be fun but Solberg Jr strongly believes in being active on social media to not only engage with fans, but show the raw emotion that rallying evokes.

“Everybody sees how great everything looks from the outside, it is important for people to see the inside and the hard work that goes in and also the fun side in the background,” he says. “We also enjoy and have crazy things we want to do and share with the people - to show that we are humans.

“There will always be crazy videos, but I’m not sure we will be able to show it. Maybe we will do some more cool stuff for sure.”

Solberg Sr believes his son's appetite for hard work will take him far

Photo by: Oliver Solberg

Petter though isn't especially keen on going for another ride on tarmac with his son in a WRC car...

“On gravel and snow I really enjoy riding with him it is no problem at all, but on tarmac I can’t say the same,” he explains. “That was maybe one of the most scary experiences of my life! It is so different, the aerodynamics on the cars now are incredible. It is quite a bit different from the cars I drove.”

Solberg is not the first young star to be offered a plum drive in the WRC. Most recently Toyota took the plunge by putting its faith in Kalle Rovanpera, the son of Solberg Sr's WRC contemporary Harri. He too started young and quickly showed great promise, resulting in his promotion to a full-season drive in 2020 at the tender age of 19.

Speed creates expectation and this is only further enhanced by having a famous rallying surname. However, one aspect both Solbergs agree on is that time and patience is required to learn the trade, before expecting immediate success.

As Toyota has been with Kalle, Hyundai must allow Oliver the time to grow before its faith in selecting the new Solberg is repaid

This has been proved this season by Rovanpera, who came through to score his maiden WRC win in Estonia some 18 months into his factory WRC career. As Toyota has been with Rovanpera, Hyundai must allow Solberg the time to grow before its faith in selecting the Swede is repaid.

“We always try to make the kids do less mistakes and learn from them,” Petter says. “But you still have to do mistakes, if not, you will not develop at that age. It is something you have to go through.

“Obviously you are in a big team and you have to be first off very thankful for the possibility. But they also have to accept it is not going to be rosy flower beds. You have to let young kids do some mistakes and learn from that.

“We see that with every driver - we see it with Ott Tanak for example. I think with Rovanpera at Toyota it has been a good plan for a long time now.

Rovanpera has suffered some high-profile shunts, but is blossoming into one of the WRC's top drivers - winning his second rally in Greece last month

Photo by: Toyota Racing

“When a proper plan is made, you can see it is possible to build up young drivers as long as you take care of them properly and work with them and give them possibilities. I think Hyundai is doing a very good job there and it will be a very exciting future for sure.”

This exciting future is very much in the forefront of Solberg's mind. He is already champing at the bit to begin his first real foray into the WRC next year.

“This opportunity is amazing, I want to start right now,” he says. “To be moving into the next generation of this sport with a team which won the world championship for the last two years is something… like I said, I’m still pinching myself.

“I’m only just 20, so it’s a huge step so early in my career. But it’s one I’m ready for and it’s one I can’t wait to get going with, so I can repay people’s belief in me.”

Oliver Solberg, Aaron Johnston, Hyundai Motorsport Hyundai i20 N Rally2

Photo by: McKlein / Motorsport Images