| Petter Solberg |
Petter Solberg is one of the WRC’s most popular characters and his success in motorsport comes as little surprise. Father Terje and mother Tove were regular autocross competitors and Petter and elder brother Henning helped them maintain their cars from a young age. He learned to drive around his parents’ farm in Spydeberg, 50km from Oslo. He was too young to compete himself, but raced radio-controlled cars and was Norwegian champion at the age of 13. His competition debut came in 1992, driving his first event the day after he passed his driving test at just 18. He developed his skills in autocross, rallycross and hillclimbing and won the Norwegian rallycross and hillclimb championships in both 1995 and 1996 in a Volvo 240. Solberg made his rally debut in 1996 in the Hedmarksrally in Norway. It wasn’t the most successful debut as he destroyed brother Henning’s Toyota Celica during a big accident. He acquired another Celica and in 1998 he lifted the Norwegian Rally Championship, winning four of the six rounds. He also made his world championship debut, finishing 16th in Sweden. His developing talent earned him a contract with Ford’s world championship squad for 1999. In what was supposed to be a learning year, Solberg was thrust into the limelight when he replaced the injured Thomas Rådström at Kenya’s Safari Rally. With no experience of the Focus WRC, he delivered a remarkably mature performance to finish fifth in the toughest round of the series. He joined Subaru midway through the 2000 season and despite some early setbacks, he claimed his first WRC podium in the 2001 Acropolis Rally in Greece when he took second. That was the platform for a hugely successful 2002 season, when Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills claimed their first win in Britain, en route to second in the championship. The following season was even better as victories in Cyprus, Australia, France and Britain earned the pair the drivers’ world title. The 2004 campaign was Solberg’s most successful in terms of rally wins. He won five rounds but missed out on the title to Sébastien Loeb, and the situation was repeated in 2005 when he claimed three more wins on his way to runner-up in the championship. The 2006 season was the start of a difficult three years for Solberg and his time at Subaru ended when the Japanese manufacturer pulled out of the championship at the end of 2008. Refusing to believe his world rally career was over, Solberg set about building his own team and the Petter Solberg World Rally Team was up and running for 2009. He drove Citroens for three seasons and eight podium finishes in 2010 carried him to third in the drivers’ standings. With the second seat in the official Ford team vacant for 2012, Solberg was the natural choice to return to the squad where his world rally career began 12 years ago.
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