These are important, albeit strange, weeks ahead for Oliver Solberg.
He leads a championship heading into the season finale, but can have no influence over his fate. And he seemingly has some good options for 2025, but no clarity on which will come to fruition.
Regardless, his future looks secure – no matter what he’s driving, or whether he’s doing it with a WRC2 title in his pocket.
“It’s bad to say maybe, but I don’t think it [winning WRC2] affects my future at all if I win it or not,” Solberg candidly told DirtFish.
“But for my personal sake, it would mean a lot.”
WRC2 success in Latvia was one of three wins for Solberg this year
So with his 2024 season wrapped but conversations alive regarding his 2025 options, let’s examine Solberg’s campaign and where he could end up next year:
His best season yet?
Toyota’s Sami Pajari is the man that can deny Solberg’s season striking gold. Second place (or better) for the Finn in Japan would earn him the WRC2 title for 2024.
But regardless, as he’s already hinted above, Solberg is proud of his season – a year in which he again has won the most stages of anyone and claimed three event victories from a possible seven.
“As a team, how we have performed and everything that’s happened, I’m incredibly proud of the season,” Solberg said.
“Obviously, I feel there’s maybe a bit of bad luck sometimes with a lot of different scenarios and situations and whatever it might be, but at least performance-wise and consistency and everything, I’ve been very happy and think it’s probably my best season ever.
“So, yeah, definitely very happy.”
The season started with victory on home ground in Sweden
The bad luck Solberg references points to a notional time handed to title rival Yohan Rossel in Chile, which the Swede feels was generous and helped both Rossel win the event and restrict Solberg to just fourth.
There were other slip ups too, like crashing from the lead in Portugal after being distracted passing Kalle Rovanperä’s Rally1 Toyota, but all in all it’s hard to disagree with Solberg’s personal assessment of his season.
His speed has long been beyond question, but what the now 23-year-old has shown this year is an increased maturity and improved rally management.
Those are traits that will only serve him and co-driver Elliott Edmondson well as they look to plot their path back to the Rally1 class. The question is: how soon will that come?
A possible M-Sport drive?
M-Sport Ford’s position in the WRC driver market is largely dependent on what its current star driver, Adrien Fourmaux, decides to do. If the Frenchman is, as heavily suspected, off to Hyundai, then suddenly M-Sport is in need of a driver to fill the void.
The reality is, though, that that driver must bring with them some budget to drive.
A key hurdle blocking Solberg’s name being stickered onto the side of a Puma has been the Red Bull and Monster Energy clash. Currently Red Bull’s logos are plastered over M-Sport’s cars, but if Fourmaux exits there’s a possibility Red Bull could go with him as it has heavily supported his career.
M-Sport's Red Bull backing has been a potential stumbling block - but one that might go away
In that scenario, suddenly a Solberg and M-Sport deal doesn’t seem so unattainable.
“Of course you talk with them,” Solberg hinted. “But if you find a solution, that’s a different thing.”
Asked who he was actually talking to, Solberg replied: “I talk to everyone, obviously.” But added it was “difficult to say” regarding an M-Sport Rally1 drive.
Asked if that was purely because of budget, Solberg said: “I think there’s a lot of reasons why, a lot of different reasons.
“Now I have American management, same as Travis Pastrana, so I haven’t really been so much involved,” he continued. “I let them do all the work and then my parents are on the side, you know, so I haven’t really looked into it that much, who has contacted who.
“But I know I have a discussion with them and so on, but obviously I have discussions with everybody.”
Solberg's best Rally1 result was fourth on 2022 Ypres Rally
A Rally1 seat does remain a tantalizing proposition though, given Solberg showed flashes of brilliance during his curtailed season with Hyundai in 2022.
He is therefore confident he could be competitive straight away if given the chance.
“Yeah, for sure. I think the possibilities are great with enough testing and a proper program and belief. I think it could be very good.
“You know, in the beginning of Hyundai everything looked very good in the first season in WRC when I did a few rallies and then obviously the year I was in WRC [with the Rally1 car in 2022] it was for sure a very difficult time because of many different reasons.
“But I think now after two years in WRC2, proven a lot of speed, a lot of consistency and so on, I feel definitely ready to go back and start learning again. It’s one thing being ready to go in, but also, you need to come in and start learning again how it is to drive those cars.
Many of his outings were spent trying to tame Hyundai's third entry
“And with some rallies, I think I could perform very well; and then some others, you need some more experience, obviously. But I feel ready.”
What are the WRC2 options?
Solberg’s driven a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2 for two seasons now, stepping up his relationship with Škoda Motorsport this year.
But in two separate answers to questions asked throughout the Central European Rally weekend a couple of weeks ago, Solberg seemed to suggest he could remain in WRC2, albeit not with Škoda.
“I have stuff on the table, obviously,” he said on Friday. “I have different offers and possibilities to see what I want to do, but not Rally1 anyway. But I have some good offers in WRC2 that could be interesting, you know, so we’ll see.”
Asked about this further at the end of the rally on Sunday, Solberg insisted: “There’s nothing done yet. There’s a lot of things up in the air, you know.
Could CER run be Solberg's last in a Škoda?
“But of what I have on the table right now, I think the future is not very different to what I do now. But maybe it looks a little bit different, maybe. I don’t know.”
What ‘a little bit different’ could precisely mean is unclear. But reading between the lines, Solberg clearly has options to drive a different Rally2 car in 2025 than a Fabia.
And of course, it’s hard to imagine he doesn’t have the option to remain with Škoda too. So there is plenty to think about and plenty to decide.
All while watching Rally Japan play out from afar to see whether he will become WRC2 champion or not.
“I’ll probably watch a few stages, but I don’t know what I will do, actually,” Solberg admitted.
“Maybe I do something, I don’t know. Maybe I keep myself busy, I don’t know.”
