While he’d unquestionably have rathered attack this World Rally Championship season in a Rally1 car, all things considered the move to Rally2, and WRC2, has fared Oliver Solberg well.
In fact the same can be said about his fellow Rally1 refugees, Adrien Fourmaux and Gus Greensmith, too.
Sometimes a step sideways is the best way to go forwards.
But that doesn’t mean Solberg is loving every aspect of WRC2.
More than perhaps most, the 21-year-old Swede has been punished by the championship’s rules that only permit a driver to score points on seven (of the 13) rounds, with the best six of those counting towards their final points tally.
Solberg’s been fortunate to have had the budget to drive on all nine rounds so far in 2023, but having to choose which rallies he’ll nominate as a points-scoring round beforehand means he’s often achieved his best results when not contributing towards his WRC2 title assault.
Rally Finland earlier this month was the perfect example, where he topped the Rally2 class by over 30 seconds but it meant nothing towards his championship campaign.
But Solberg did elect to score in Sardinia and Estonia – two rallies where he registered big fat zeros on the board; the first of those a particular source of frustration as Solberg could have done nothing about his front-left suspension collapsing on the first morning.
As the season reaches its crescendo, it’s therefore looking pretty improbable for Solberg to become WRC2 champion this year.
He’s previously gone on-record to state that he’d rather be the fastest driver in WRC2 than the WRC2 champion, but after Finland Solberg did express his frustration that the WRC2 champion may not be the fastest of the season but the one who has the most fortune or competes directly against the fewest drivers.
“Of course you want to win the championship,” Solberg told DirtFish, “that’s always a dream, but after a few misfortunes during the year strategy changed, and of course being quick on every surface, every rally so far and yeah when you see the ones that have the chance to win the championship of course then you don’t win the championship on pure speed.
“I don’t like that.
“In WRC you win with pure speed and that’s what I want to learn for the future and that’s my goal also for this year to be fast every rally, everywhere and with good, decent speed.”
Solberg at least feels he has proved that, particularly on Tarmac.
“That was the goal for the year, to really learn first of all Tarmac and we were quickest in Monte Carlo,” he said.
“So that was where I wanted to learn the most, where I wanted to improve the most, and obviously snow and gravel I feel confident.
“Yeah Estonia [we had] great pace but obviously that small mistake with the rock on the outside there, that’s life that happens.
“Yeah, otherwise I’m very, very happy.”
Solberg’s next event will be Acropolis Rally Greece – his sixth of seven events in WRC2. He’s then expected to take on Central European Rally in late October.
