If he could, Oliver Solberg would’ve been driving a Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 yesterday.
Luckily for him he’ll get to do it tomorrow. And the day after that.
Toyota’s new signing will compete at Rallye National Hivernal du Dévoluy this Saturday and Sunday (December 6/7), acting as the perfect preparation for January’s Monte Carlo Rally.
“I’m very excited, I can’t wait to be honest,” Solberg told DirtFish. “I’m happy to get experience, I think it’s important for Monte Carlo to do a rally like that and I’m really, really excited to start. I could’ve started after Estonia – I’ve been so ready!”
The two-day, 85 stage-mile event will give Solberg his first try of his 2026 ride on Tarmac, having only previously driven it on gravel for Rally Estonia.
Solberg's only GR Yaris Rally1 mileage so far has been on gravel - but it didn't exactly go badly...
“I’m using the race as a build-up, as a test,” Solberg explained. “I want to work as hard as I can, as much as I can and then see what is possible and see what I can do with the team.
“For sure the plan is to work hard and see to make me really happy and to be comfortable in the car at the end of the weekend.”
While the result carries less weight than on a round of the World Rally Championship, Solberg does have a strong yardstick in Hyundai’s Adrien Fourmaux, who won this rally on his Hyundai debut last year and then got a podium in Monte Carlo.
“Yeah it’s really good [to have Fourmaux there],” Solberg said. “I think, you know, he’s one of the top guys on Tarmac, I think he’s proven himself so it’s good for me to get that level to understand.
“Of course he knows the car maybe a bit better and he’s going to have a test before the race too and I’m just going to drop straight into shakedown…”
Fourmaux entered Dévoluy last year on his Hyundai debut - and won
Fourmaux is keen to use the rally to optimize the i20 N Rally1 on Tarmac, given the struggles the car’s had on recent world championship rounds.
“Last year we had a good start on the season in Monte Carlo,” Fourmaux told DirtFish, “so I want to replicate the same. We have quite a lot of job to do on our car on Tarmac for that, but we have seen some things going in a good direction, so I’m quite confident that we’re going to sort it really quickly.
“So I’m quite confident to be fair. We are already working on it, so let’s go for it.”
Solberg won’t be the only World Rally winner on the roads between Sisteron and Gap this week, with Haydon Paddon also competing aboard a BRC-run Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Asked the obvious Monte Carlo question, Paddon said it wasn’t the plan – at the moment – to tackle next year’s WRC season opener.
