There are plenty of things in Oliver Solberg’s favor this week as he wades into European Rally Championship battle on Royal Rally of Scandinavia.
On local ground, driving a very capable car with plenty of seat time this season and a turn of speed nobody in the World Rally Championship’s Rally2 class has been able to consistently better, Solberg is nothing but a favorite for success in Sweden.
Provided things go to plan, of course.
But even if they don’t, Solberg will make the best of it in a way that few others can.
There are things that we all know about Petter and Pernilla’s son.
He’s fast. That was clear even last season during his troubled part-time Rally1 season for Hyundai, and has been made abundantly obvious by his speed in a Toksport Škoda.
He’s passionate. Anybody with Petter Solberg’s DNA was going to be, weren’t they?
And he’s a born entertainer. Rally of Portugal donuts mean anything to anyone?
But arguably Oliver’s most admirable trait, his refusal to ever give up – no matter what the scenario – is perhaps slept on by many.
It’s something I wrote in our regular ‘what we learned‘ feature following Safari Rally Kenya, but I feel it deserves more attention because it’s a massively undervalued area of his game.
Solberg’s not alone in pushing through adversity. All rally drivers must be perseverant in order to achieve success – and there are numerous examples from this season alone.
Pierre-Louis Loubet’s battle to make the end of the day without power-steering on the Monte for example. Or Elfyn Evans’ miraculous road-side repair following his disagreement with a water-splash in Sardinia.
But where Solberg impresses (at least me!) is with his relentless push to recover a result that, by all accounts, should have been lost.
Nothing is ever impossible to the 21-year-old.
I should've known better - that isn't the Solberg way
The Safari was just the tip of that particular iceberg. Leading by close to two and a half minutes as Friday drew to a close, it was clear Solberg had the measure of the RC2 class until a puncture, and a regrettable decision not to stop and change it, forced him out on the leg’s final test.
With a sudden 7m35.2s deficit to overcome, I expected the rhetoric to be ‘let’s just keep round and keep building our experience.’ After all, Solberg didn’t need to be the first Rally2 car home as he wasn’t registered for WRC2 championship points in Kenya.
But I should’ve known better – that isn’t the Solberg way. Oliver made it his mission to recover that lost ground and take the class win he so clearly desired.
It wasn’t quite to be, but that’s besides the point. The fact he wasn’t shying away from what looked to be a near impossible challenge spoke volumes.
In Sardinia, Solberg’s never-say-die attitude was on display too.
Leading WRC2 after two stages, disaster struck as the front-left strut popped through the hood of his Škoda. On the road section before the demanding 31-mile Monte Lerno stage, by rights Solberg’s rally was done for the day.
But knowing he’d be destined for a 40-minute penalty if he couldn’t restart, he and co-driver Elliott Edmondson performed miracles to get the Fabia RS Rally2 to a state where it was ready to pass the stage.
Solberg may have been 29 minutes late to the time control (incurring a 4m50s penalty), and he may have lost almost half an hour on the stage, but the time lost was a lot less than if he’d taken the easy option and retired the car.
Again, the net result ended up the same as he was too far away from the points. But he was willing to put that effort in, just in case it worked.
And by the way, driving a wounded car through a stage as long as Monte Lerno was some effort! It took Solberg just shy of an hour to complete.
We saw the same unwavering determination in Portugal too, when Solberg came within just a handful of seconds of stealing the WRC2 win back that he’d lost to a one-minute penalty for donuts after the Lousada superspecial.
The examples stretch far beyond just the last few rallies, and even this season.
Remember the Safari last year when Solberg encountered issue upon issue upon issue, but still made the end of the event in the points?
Or the Monte five months earlier when he valiantly fought through toxic exhaust fumes making their way into the cockpit and making him feel very sick – when he absolutely didn’t need to with the car already well outside the top 10.
And don’t forget, one of Solberg’s team-mates had driven that same car, with the same issue, in testing and called it quits very early into the day.
Then there was his herculean effort in Ypres 2021 as the power-steering went on his brand-new Hyundai i20 N Rally2 and Solberg battled on for multiple stages (stages with plenty of tight junctions, the worst thing imaginable without power-steering) to somehow keep the lead of WRC2, only for an electrical fault to prevent him from starting the final day.
Solberg’s effort and commitment to the cause is simply exemplary.
He has far more tools in his arsenal than just perseverance, we know that. There’s a very real chance, for example, that Solberg could win this weekend’s Royal Rally of Scandinavia simply by driving the fastest.
But if he encounters some kind of issue, don’t discount him. Solberg’s prepared to fight harder than almost anybody else to make the finish and achieve what he sets out to.
No matter where his career goes from here, that’ll always stand him in good stead.
