Oliver Solberg has opened up on where he needs to improve as a World Rally Championship driver following a mixed start to the season.
After six events in 2026 the Toyota driver is third in the world championship, having won the Monte Carlo Rally and returned to the podium in Portugal after a difficult run of events.
Solberg’s speed is beyond question – he has more stage wins so far this year than anyone else – but his consistency has come under scrutiny, particularly after day-ending mistakes in both Croatia and Gran Canaria. He’s made driving errors at at least five of the six rallies, including the most recent Rally Portugal where he got a puncture after going off on a corner Sébastien Ogier had warned him about on recce.
Despite this, the 24-year-old feels he is in a good place, although has admitted he sometimes needs to remember how inexperienced he actually is in top-level Rally1 machinery.
One way this manifests is in his pacenotes, which he has honed over the years in Rally2 cars. Corners he could take flat in that car, he can’t necessarily in the GR Yaris Rally1.
“I just need to improve small things with the pacenotes and with the speed of this car and otherwise I feel in a good position,” Solberg told DirtFish.
“I think in Rally2 everything is just flat out, you know, but I think in these Rally1 when you have these small, tricky, fast corners or something with this car, all it takes is half a second wrong and that’s where I need to improve a little bit on the pacenotes side, to lose a little bit of time because I know [Sébastien] Ogier will lose time in these places and that’s where his experience is coming I guess with this car.
“Other than that, I’m just really proud of the speed we have already at every rally.”
Solberg said he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson have “definitely spoken a lot” about what he calls “these smalls misjudgements in different places” at various events.
“I think that’s the only thing we need to try to take away from this: to judge these dangerous places a little bit better in such a quick car,” Solberg added.
But he equally feels his performances have been better than perhaps the trend makes them look.
“I mean, Sweden was just first time first on the road. It was just very tricky,” he explained. “It’s one of those circumstances and Africa could have, should have been a win really, you know and people would have looked at it very differently then.
“Croatia and Gran Canaria was a misjudgment on things on new experiences and in Gran Canaria we were two seconds behind fighting for the win the whole weekend and these things happen, it’s happened to everyone. It’s happened to Ogier [in Portugal], it’s happened to Neuville in Croatia, so that’s it, I look at that differently.
“I guess I didn’t think of it much, how difficult it was in this type of car, I think that’s what I still got to learn,” he concluded. “You’re leading, you’re fighting for the win, maybe it’s a bit too good to be true, but it’s where I expect myself to be and it’s where I want to be. It’s where I dream to be.”
