Interview: Oliver Solberg on WRC2, winning and the importance of donuts

World Rally Championship WRC2 challenger Oliver Solberg is eager for to build on the strengths he showed in his first season in the second tier of international rallying,

“The same as this year,” the 22 year-old Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 driver said confidently when asked about his expectations. “The speed and the experience is definitely there. I want to try and be world champion. It’s simple.”

Solberg en route to victory on home ground in Rally Sweden. McKlein photo

Ranking sixth in this year’s WRC2 standings, Solberg — son of 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg — bookended his season with victories in the season-opening Rally Sweden as well as Rally Chile. Keen to prove to the world that he was, in fact, the fastest driver in the classification, Solberg did just that, easily winning the most stages in 2023 WRC2 competition.

Now he’s looking to build on that…after a stint playing Santa.

“Well, right now I’m in Sweden and in the workshop making Christmas gifts for all of the sponsors and everyone,” he related. “The sponsors help me and then I can do something nice back for them.”

Solberg has admitted boredom sets in for him during the offseason, but says he’s learning to make the most of the time away.

“It’s OK. Offseason is the most hectic season. Obviously, that’s when all the work starts for the future. It’s boring because you can’t drive, but it’s fun in another way. It’s a lot of work and it’s good fun in that way.”

One item Solberg was able to attend to immediately after Rally Chile was the 350-mile Roger Albert Clark Rally. Climbing into his father’s restored Ford Escort RS1800, Solberg charged through Wales, Scotland, the north of England and the Kielder forest before sliding off and getting stuck in the mud on SS29.

“Ah, it was amazing,” sighed Solberg of the RAC rally he is so passionate of. “It has always been a dream of mine to do the rally. It was a proper adventure. Five days of classic rallying with classic and proper rally cars, 10,700rpm and driving half of the rally in the dark. It was amazing. It was really, really, really amazing.

“You know, my grandfather did the rally back in the 1970s. His best finish was exactly 50 years ago. He did the rally in 1973. It’s a cool story. It was exactly 50 years in-between rallies for him. It was hardcore rallying. It was proper old school rally. The car that I competed in was from 1976, so you can imagine that it was proper shifting and no power steering. Yeah, the car was absolutely fantastic to drive.”

Taking a step back and a long look at his 2023 body of work, Solberg finds a lot to take satisfaction in.

“I have to say it has been fantastic, to be honest. I was really, really happy with the year,” said the Swede. “I was the fastest overall this year and I’m still young, so I’m very happy. Obviously, I was leading the world championship early on in the year, but then having some technical issues early in the year was not optimal. That’s just how it is. Otherwise, it has been an absolutely amazing year with a lot of wins and a lot of positives. We traveled the world. It was amazing.

“You know, the dream was to be world champion, but otherwise and on the other side, being the quickest overall at every rally and on every surface this year was definitely all part of the goal,” he reasoned. “Getting back to the top and working on it and getting confidence back was what I wanted and I 100-percent achieved that goal. I have to be very happy.”