There were plenty of firsts in 2025.
The first world title (in WRC2), the first World Rally Championship win (in Estonia) and the first full WRC season for both him and his driver.
However the opportunity that lies ahead in 2026 isn’t a first. Elliott Edmondson has been at the top table before – with both M-Sport Ford and Hyundai. But they do say the third time’s a charm.
To steal a line from a fairytale, this one’s just right.
“In a way it feels like the first time,” Edmondson reveals. “It’s just like ‘this is the proper one’.”
The Briton talks to DirtFish about his incredible 2025 alongside Oliver Solberg, and why the chance to compete with Toyota in a GR Yaris Rally1 is the perfect opportunity at almost the perfect time.
The perfect rhythm
Solberg and Edmondson won nine of the 13 events they started in Rally2
Safari didn’t go to plan as they were stuck in fech-fech, but many recognize this wasn’t their fault. Finland didn’t go to plan either with an accident, but adapting back to Rally2 from a dream debut in Rally1 was an understandable contributing factor.
The rest? They won. It’s hard to see where this year didn’t go to plan for Solberg and Edmondson.
“That is a fair assessment, yeah,” says Edmondson. “Looking back, reflecting on the year, I think I have a very similar view really. It is hard to see how it could have gone any better, which I think really signifies where we’re at in our careers.
“Competing in WRC2, I think we’ve maximized it, you know? Not to say that things can’t go wrong every now and again, I mean, that’s the sport that we’re in. But I think we just found a really good rhythm, both in ourselves and the way that we gelled with the team, with Printsport, and of course what we were doing development-wise with TGR as well.
“I think the whole package just gelled so well and combining that obviously with the experience that we’ve gained over the last few years on the rallies and working together as a crew as well. I think that’s it, I think we’ve just found a really good rhythm in our own performance.
“And, of course, we carried that through to Estonia as well, and proved that it works no matter what we’re in. We’re in that state where it just seems to be working.”
‘That state’ is commonly known as the flow state, where everything happens naturally; without effort, without stress.
From the outside looking in, that’s how Solberg and Edmondson have appeared this year. It’s been effortless. Victory has been, to be blunt, inevitable. Is this flow state something they are deliberately achieving, or just nature taking its own course?
“I know exactly what you mean and to be honest we’ve asked ourselves almost the same question: are we doing anything different? I think the genuine answer is no, not really,” Edmondson explains.
“And I think that’s why it’s so good, because it’s not something we’re having to force. We’re not, so to speak, turning on the switch and going into this other state. I think it’s just genuinely what’s coming natural to us at the moment, which is why it’s working so well.
“We’ve also been asking ourselves, how do we ensure that we stay in this kind of state? Is there anything we need to do differently? And genuinely I don’t know. In terms of the way that we prepare and everything, of course there’s a lot to learn and we have to operate differently in a big team, no question. But whether there’s anything particularly consciously that we need to change or to do I’m not so sure because it’s just coming naturally to us at the moment.
“And I think that’s just a reflection on the four and a half years we’ve had together now as a team. We’ve taken something from every team that we’ve been with and we’ve found what works and what doesn’t work and we’re always optimizing things a little bit, but I think we found a really good base as to how we work as a crew and how we interact with a team and… yeah, it just seems to be working.”
Rally1 ready
Estonia victory made 2026 promotion inevitable, but Edmondson feels they've been Rally1 ready for years
Dominating WRC2 in the way he has this year, Solberg always looked like he was ready for Rally1. He then proved he was ready for Rally1 with the ultimate mic drop of a victory in the summer.
Four years ago, when he was just 20, the Swede was deemed ready for Rally1 by Hyundai. He’s since spent three seasons in WRC2 which appear to have developed him as a driver, but how long has he actually been ready for the top class?
“Honestly, I don’t feel like we were ever not ready for Rally1,” Edmondson believes. “When it didn’t go well the first time, there were a lot of contributing factors to why that didn’t work out. And I wouldn’t say any of them were because we weren’t ready.
“We were, again, immediately working very well together as a crew. And our couple of events at the end of ’21, in the previous car, demonstrated that we were already capable of competing at that level.
“That’s not to say that the three years we’ve done in WRC2 weren’t important and haven’t helped because they absolutely have. We’ve learned a lot about ourselves and gained a lot of experience in how to manage an entire rally as a whole, you know, in terms of tire management, all this sort of stuff.
There were a lot of contributing factors to why Rally1 didn't work out the first time. And I wouldn't say any of them were because we weren't readyElliott Edmondson
“I mean, you speak to someone who’s been competing in a sport for 20 years and they’ll say they’re still learning things. So the fact we’ve done three years competing in the WRC, regardless of the category or the car, we’ve learned a huge amount. And there’s absolutely… you can never say that was a bad thing.
“This year was actually the first time Oliver and I, separately or together, have done a full season in WRC. And even that itself is a huge thing to learn how to manage your energy levels throughout the year. Previously I think the maximum either of us had done was 10 in WRC. And straight away to do those four extra rallies is a lot to learn on how to be jumping in and out of the car every couple of weeks instead of being able to perhaps focus a bit more on each event with three or four weeks leading up to it.”
Edmondson also points out to Solberg’s maturity beyond his 24 years on planet Earth as a real strength.
“It was what impressed me so incredibly at the beginning actually,” the Englishman says. “He’s always had a very mature head on his shoulders, so that’s been a massive credit to him. It’s been four years [together] and we all develop over those early 20s and grow and gain experiences and move forward in life as well, personal life too.
“But I’ve always thought he was way more mature and way more sensible than people gave him credit for. Because I get this question a lot, you know, how much… hasn’t he matured and grown up and blah, blah, blah over these last few years. But to be honest, I think he was always very mature. And I think to be honest, he got a bit of an unfair assessment in the beginning with our early years at Hyundai and so on.
“And, you know, he was in a very difficult position quite often. And I think he handled it very, very, very well, both politically and emotionally and everything like that. And it was very impressive to watch, actually, how he managed it all. And I felt quite sorry for him sometimes as well. Of course, nonetheless, he’s still progressed over the last few years and that’s why we’re now achieving what we are.”
Anything is possible
What can this pair achieve in 2026?
This writer has a sneaking suspicion that Solberg and Edmondson are 100% ready not just to compete in Rally1, but win in Rally1. Not just rallies, but the championship too.
Where’s their weakness?
I therefore ask what’s possible in 2026? Edmondson took a cautious approach to answering the question:
“Well, to use Oliver’s quote, which he says all the time, which is everything’s possible. Which is true! You have to be that optimistic, I think, in this sport. That’s an important mindset to have, is to always be optimistic, to always be wanting more, to always be looking for the best possible result, whatever that might be.
“So, of course we’re going to be realistic. We understand that what happened in Estonia, whilst it was a genuine result, we can’t expect that everywhere. We are aware of that as much as, if not more than, anybody else you know so we are managing our expectations very well.”
But…
“But at the same time we know that if it was possible in Estonia, then it is also possible to happen again. So we just need to make sure that we, yeah, manage our expectations but we will definitely be working to the absolute best of our abilities to try and get the best results we possibly can.
“There’s no reason why it couldn’t happen again and we’ll be doing our best.”
The cherry on top of the cake is they’re doing it with the right team, in the right car. Five manufacturers titles in a row and six of the last seven drivers’ titles speak for themselves – but don’t tell the whole story.
Toyota’s team atmosphere is one of its secret weapons, and Edmondson has already felt it.
“It definitely feels right,” he says. “We went and did the seat fit and the whole team was so welcoming and it’s not to say that the other teams weren’t of course, but you know it just felt like a real family, we turned up and nothing… they couldn’t do too much.
“Everything we wanted to do, everything we asked for, they were really really accommodating – they just wanted us to feel at home. We spent so much time getting ourselves comfortable in the car, when we made a suggestion it was ‘yeah, we can do that, we can make that happen, or we can at least investigate it’. We’re all working in the same direction, and that’s a really nice feeling to have already at the beginning of the relationship.
“I’m 31 now, and half of my life has worked towards this. And there’s been times when it’s felt close and it’s not quite materialized or it’s not quite been what we thought it would be. But this time, it really feels like this is something very, very exciting.
“And I don’t think either of us could be any more ready for it. I think it’s the perfect opportunity at the perfect time. And now we just need to make the most of it.”
