Oliver Solberg set out his stall following his decision not to score WRC2 points on his last event, Safari Rally Kenya.
The reason? He didn’t want to win the title without beating the majority of his rivals.
So on a rally where just 13 Rally2 cars were entered – compared to next weekend’s Rally Estonia for example where there’ll be exactly twice as many Rally2 machines – Solberg would’ve had a better chance of a top result.
But that’s not how he wants to win the title, if he wins it.
Why hasn’t Solberg registered for championship points on Rally Finland then?
That question’s been doing the rounds on social media ever since the Finland entry list was published last Friday, and it has merit.
Winning in Finland is one of the biggest statements of them all, and all the big players are there.
Yohan Rossel, Gus Greensmith, Andreas Mikkelsen, Emil Lindholm, Adrien Fourmaux, Sami Pajari, Jari Huttunen… the list goes on.
Surely if Solberg wants to win against the best, he should be in the mix in Jyväskylä too?
But Solberg’s reasoning is equally valid.
“I’ve had a s*** time there two years in a row now,” Solberg told DirtFish, “so I just want to enjoy myself, finish and that’s it.”
Competing, but not scoring, in Finland isn’t Solberg hiding from a challenge or a complete reversal of his stated strategy – if that were the case he wouldn’t have nominated Estonia as one of his events either.
Instead, he’s being tactical about it. Finland isn’t an event that’s been kind to him in either 2021 but particularly 2022, so he doesn’t want to add any more unnecessary pressure when he doesn’t have to.
After Estonia he still has two rounds left to score points on, which will most likely be Acropolis Rally Greece and Central European Rally where big entries are also expected.
So if Solberg does become WRC2 champion this year, he’ll still have done it the way he has pledged to.
