Oliver Solberg will contest a full season of World Rally Championship action in 2022, with the 20-year-old expected to run the first three rounds in Hyundai Motorsport’s third Rally1 car.
With Ott Tänak and Thierry Neuville leading the team, Solberg will share one of the hybrid i20 N Rally1s with Dani Sordo. The Spaniard admitted he expected to be less busy next year than across recent campaigns.
Asked what he thought his 2022 would look like, Sordo told DirtFish: “I will start to spend time, to work a little bit in the car and, with everybody focusing on Oliver, to try to help him and prepare him as much as we can to be the best in his performance.
“At the moment, I think I will do like four rallies, something like this. After that we will see if I do something more or whatever, I don’t know. I don’t know what next year, I will do at the moment.
“I don’t know [which will be the first round], I need to talk with Mr Andrea [Adamo, Hyundai team principal] and to know the plans. Maybe Portugal or something like this.”
EVERYTHING BUT RIMS REDESIGNED FOR HYUNDAI’S ‘REAL’ RALLY1 CAR
The i20 N Rally1 will be tested, but not as we know it
Solberg remained tight-lipped on his schedule meanwhile.
“I don’t know [when I start],” he said. “I wait to hear from the team what I will be doing. Like you imagined, I hope as much as possible – these cars are fantastic and I want to be driving all of the time!”
Andrea Adamo has already raised the potential of running four Rally1 cars in the second half of the season. Where Sordo or Solberg doesn’t compete in the hybrid car, the team now has the opportunity to run a de-tuned 2017-specification World Rally Car or the i20 N Rally2.
The team principal though is also unwilling to confirm the team’s early 2022 line-up plans.
“There’s plenty of time, I don’t know. It’s possible Oliver will do Monte Carlo. If Dani is telling you what’s happening, then maybe he’s the new team principal, no?
“We have options and nothing is decided. Oliver will do the full season. In what? In a Hyundai…”
