Petter Solberg: From WRC Champion to Two-Time World Rallycross Champion

Petter Solberg built his reputation with the Subaru World Rally Team, winning the world drivers' title in 2003 as the first Norwegian to do so. He later moved into rallycross, where he took the FIA World Rallycross titles of 2014 and 2015 before stepping back from full-time competition at the end of 2018.

Who is Petter Solberg?

Solberg is a former rally and rallycross driver whose career ran from the World Rally Championship in 1998 to the World RX paddock in the late 2010s. He was born on 18 November 1974 and carried the nickname Mr. Hollywood. He won the WRC drivers' title in 2003 and later became the first FIA World Rallycross champion.

Solberg grew up around cars. His parents, Tove and Terje, were keen bilcross competitors, a low-cost Norwegian form of rallycross. As a boy he helped rebuild competition cars on the family farm, well before he was old enough to hold a licence of his own.

A Norwegian champion across two disciplines, from the Subaru works team to his own World RX squad.

How did Solberg start in motorsport?

Solberg started with radio-controlled cars, taking the Norwegian Tamiya Cup title in 1987, aged 13. He entered his first bilcross event in 1992, three days after turning 18, and quickly moved into bigger competition.

He became Norwegian rallycross and hillclimb champion in 1995 and again in 1996. In the first of those seasons he won 19 of 21 events, and in the second he won 15 of 19. His maiden rally came in 1995 at the Norwegian Rally Bjorkelangen, where he competed in a Volvo 240 in the Volvo Original class.

He was crowned Norwegian Rally Champion in 1998. His older brother Henning took the same national title five consecutive times from 1999 through 2003, so the family rivalry on Norwegian roads became part of his story.

How did Solberg reach the World Rally Championship with Ford?

Solberg made his World Rally Championship debut in 1998 after a test drive earned him a three-year junior contract with Ford. In early 1999 he stood in for an injured team-mate on the Safari Rally and finished fifth, scoring points for both driver and manufacturer.

That result turned him into a nominated points scorer for the team, which had expected him to keep a lower profile. His stay at Ford did not last, because he left the M-Sport outfit in 2000 due to an insufficient contract. He then joined the Subaru World Rally Team, where he would spend most of his works career.

How did the Subaru years lead to a world title?

Solberg joined Subaru in 2000 and took his first WRC podium at the Acropolis Rally in Greece the following year. Earlier that season he had given up points on purpose in Corsica so that teammate Burns could fight for the championship, a choice that marked him as a team player.

He won his first WRC event at Wales Rally GB in 2002, helped by an accident for Marcus Gronholm. That season he finished runner-up to Gronholm in the standings, setting up a bid for the title in 2003.

The 2003 title was settled at the final round, Wales Rally GB. Solberg finished ahead of Sebastien Loeb after Richard Burns withdrew for health reasons, and he became the first driver from Norway to take the world drivers' crown.

What happened in the 2004 and 2005 seasons?

In 2004 Solberg won five of sixteen events while defending his title, but three mid-season retirements took the shine off his campaign. Loeb took the championship, and Solberg finished as runner-up. The defence was marked by bad luck rather than a lack of speed.

The 2005 season opened well, with wins in Sweden and Mexico, two of the first three events. Loeb then pulled away, and Solberg finished runner-up on a tie-break over Marcus Gronholm. He won three rallies in total that year.

His final WRC victory came at Wales Rally GB in 2005, a rally overshadowed by a day three crash that killed Michael Park, co-driver to Markko Martin. Later in the year Solberg retired from the Telstra Rally Australia after striking a wayward kangaroo.

How did Subaru's exit leave Solberg without a works seat?

Subaru announced on 16 December 2008 that it would leave the World Rally Championship, a day after Suzuki made the same decision. With no ride lined up, Solberg and co-driver Phil Mills missed the opening round of the 2009 season while they looked for a competitive privateer option.

Solberg did not return to a factory team in 2009. Instead, he set up the Petter Solberg World Rally Team, unveiled on 6 February 2009 with Mills alongside him. The operation had 13 staff, with Ken Rees as team manager and FX Demaison as chief engineer, and it ran a 2006-specification Citroen Xsara WRC.

How did the privateer team perform in 2009 and 2010?

In 2009 the team scored third places on the Cyprus Rally and Rally Sardinia, the first privateer podium in a privately run team since 1993. Solberg finished fourth on Rally Catalunya and on Wales Rally GB, and ended the year fifth overall in the drivers' championship.

For 2010 the team bought two Citroen C4 WRC cars from Citroen in January. Solberg took second on the Corona Mexico Rally, the best result the team had achieved to that point, and went on to a second place on Rally Turkey after mud cancelled stages on safety grounds.

Solberg was second in the standings after four of thirteen rallies, but he made a costly error on Rally New Zealand, where he hit a telegraph pole while in third and retired. His team-mate Phil Mills left the co-driver seat in June 2010 after 152 events together, a run that began in 1999. Chris Patterson replaced him, and the new pairing scored third on Rally Bulgaria with five stage wins.

Why did Solberg return to Ford in 2012?

Ford confirmed in December 2011 that Solberg would return to its factory team for 2012. He finished third in Monte-Carlo and then third again in Mexico, and after Mikko Hirvonen was stripped of a Portugal win for a regulation breach, Solberg was promoted to third there too.

Solberg also moved into second overall mid-season, four points behind Loeb. The 2011 season had brought a setback of its own, when his Swedish driving licence was suspended after he was caught 32 km/h over the limit on the way to a stage. On 4 December 2012 he confirmed that he would sit out the 2013 WRC season.

How did Solberg win the World Rallycross title?

Solberg moved into rallycross in 2013 and became the inaugural FIA World Rallycross champion in 2014. He retained the title in 2015 with the Solberg Doran Rallycross team, clinching it at Rosario in Argentina. Liam Doran partnered him in that season.

In 2013 he ran his own team, based in Torsby, through every one of the nine FIA European Rallycross Championship rounds. He retired while leading in Finland and finished eighth overall in Supercars, a difficult first year in the sport.

The 2014 title came from five race wins and nine podiums. It also made him the first driver to hold FIA world titles in two separate motorsports, rallying and rallycross. In 2016 he raced as a privateer in a Citroen DS3, won the opening round in Portugal and finished fourth overall in World RX.

What did PSRX Volkswagen Sweden achieve?

In 2017 Solberg teamed up with Volkswagen Motorsport, launching PSRX Volkswagen Sweden, and drove the Polo GTi RX. The squad soon dominated World RX, and Solberg took his final World RX win at Lydden Hill that year.

The team was crowned Teams' Champions in 2017, when Solberg finished third in the drivers' standings while Johan Kristoffersson, his teammate, took his first world title. In 2018 the squad kept the same line-up in the rebranded Polo R and won the Teams' Championship again.

Over 24 events in those two seasons, PSRX took 19 wins. Solberg also made a brief rally return at the 2018 Rally Catalunya, where the Volkswagen Polo R5 made its WRC debut and he finished third in the WRC2 category.

Did Solberg win at the Gymkhana Grid?

Solberg competed in the Gymkhana Grid series in 2016, 2018 and 2019. He won the AWD class at Marathon in 2016 in a Citroen Xsara, took second at Johannesburg in 2018 with a Volkswagen Polo, and won the 2019 event at Warsaw in another VW Polo.

The Gymkhana results show how far his driving reached beyond stage rallying and rallycross. The Polo he drove at Johannesburg and Warsaw is the same model his World RX team raced, a link between his two later careers.

What were Solberg's key results?

Petter Solberg won the 2003 WRC drivers' title with Subaru, two FIA World Rallycross crowns in 2014 and 2015, and Teams' Championships with PSRX in 2017 and 2018. The table below lists his main results season by season across his career.

What is Petter Solberg's legacy?

Solberg is remembered as the first Norwegian to win the WRC drivers' title and the first driver to win FIA world championships in two disciplines. His PSRX team set a benchmark in World RX, winning 19 of 24 events across 2017 and 2018, and his results on both stages remain part of the sport's history.

He stepped away from full-time racing at the close of 2018 and marked the moment with a Farewell Tour in 2019 built around the events he loved most. He recorded the quickest RX lap at Goodwood Festival of Speed, set a lap record at a Norwegian hillclimb, won a Gymkhana Grid event, and took a final WRC class win at Wales Rally GB.

His son Oliver Solberg followed him into the World Rally Championship, and the pair have often lined up together at the Race of Champions. In 2022 they won the Nations Cup for Team Norway.