Blog: Is Solberg’s win just a firework or the beginning?

Oliver Solberg impressed everyone with his performance at Rally Estonia last week as he was leading the event since Stage 2 to Stage 20.

Oliver Solberg made his WRC debut with Hyundai Motorsport back in 2022, but it did not go well. At the age of 20, he secured a part-time programme with the Alzenau-based team, but he was not ready for the big step. It was not his fault, he grabbed this opportunity as it was his dream competing at the top level of World Rally Championship. The lack of results was not his fault, but Hyundai’s. Hyundai did not have the intention to invest in young talents as Toyota does. I mean that they offered him a part-time campaign and he did not have the feeling to push. But the most important is that he did not have the time to adapt and to learn the i20N. Another fact that supports the opinion Hyundai did not want to invest in young talents is that they did not renew his contract, but they preferred to continue their third-car policy with another driver. As a result of that, he played a leading part in WRC2 class from 2023 to 2025.

For these three seasons, the young Oliver worked very hard, did not give up and managed to gain experience and to participate in the most of the WRC rounds despite the fact that he did not score points for the WRC2 title bid in some of them. In fact, he was able to win many of these WRC rounds and to be among the WRC2 drivers who were fighting for the championship. His switch from Skoda to Toyota for this season was clever as he followed Sami Pajari’s steps. He has won three WRC rounds and is leading the WRC2 championship at the moment, but the most important thing is that he showed great maturity since last year. Toyota wants to invest in young drivers and gave to Solberg the opportunity to drive the GR Yaris Rally1 at Rally Estonia, a fast gravel rally that suits to Solberg’s driving style. His win and his pace were incredible considering the fact that he spent only two days for testing his new car before the start of Rally Estonia. He managed to win nine stages and at the same time he had to learn how his new car works. For me, the most impressive thing is that he fought against three WRC Champions (Kalle Rovanpera, Thierry Neuville and Ott Tanak), two of them have a 15-year experience in World Rally Championship.

His win at Rally Estonia was not random nor a firework. It is the beginning of something big as long as a WRC team will offer him a seat for 2026.

Photo Credits: Hyundai, Toyota