Shortly after the running of the final round of the 2026 World Rally Championship, Petter Solberg made an Instagram post about his son, Oliver Solberg.
“Oliver was amazing. To take the Championship fight to the final stage of the final rally in their first full WRC season is just incredible. The motivation to win and passion for rallying I see from Oliver is more than I ever had,” the post read.
As recent World Rally Championship history has taught us, WRC rookie Oliver Solberg and co-driver Elliott Edmondson came extraordinarily close to snagging the ’26 WRC World Championship.
On the very final Power Stage and while charging towards the final stop line of both the rally and the season, Solberg ran wide in a tight left hand turn a mere two corners from the end and pitched the duo’s Toyota GR Yaris Rally1 into the bushes. Literally. The championship lost, it was a time of profound emotion for both Oliver and his father Petter, the winner of the 2003 World Rally Championship.
The opportunity for the Solberg men to become the very first father and son world championship combination in World Rally Championship coming so very close, this week Petter looked back on the Instagram post he put out on October 4.
“Well, in some sort of way it must be because, mentally, Oliver is very strong,” explained the Norwegian of why he created the post. “And with the second generation, they have grown up with a little bit different lifestyle. It seems like Oliver doesn’t care what his father has done in the sport or anything. He’s thinking about his own name and his own future. He had the motivation in his first year to win and to try and beat Sebastien Ogier. It’s been a crazy time. I can’t even believe it myself. It’s the family. It’s the motivation of winning. It’s an incredible feeling.”
The World Rally Championship destiny for Solberg coming so close to being fulfilled in Sardegna that the Solberg family was asked to gather around the stop control to meet their conquering son.
Solberg talked about the dramatic conclusion of the Rally Italia Sardegna.
“I was having two TV crews around me and I was at the finish line, but I walked down to the water and I saw the last bit of the rally,” explained Solberg, a 13-time WRC rally winner and 20 year veteran of the sport. “Oliver was up 1.9 seconds and then he was just a few hundred meters to the finish line and he had it in his hand. When Oliver came out and turned left by the beach, the road characteristic was a little bit different. Before the start of the stage, they raised the car 25 millimeters and the car was not behaving the same. I was running towards the finish line and I just saw on the left a big plume of dust coming, you know? And I thought, (expletive). I was jumping around. Not for winning, but for disappointment
“Yeah, there was a lot of crying after the finish line. It was a big, big disappointment, especially for Oliver. He told me, ‘I’m sorry dad. I wanted to be the first father and son to be World Champions together and I failed.’ I said to him, ‘You didn’t fail! This is incredible what you have done.’ He was still crying. And I understand. 150 meters before the finish. But if Oliver didn’t push as hard as he did, he would have never been in that position. He didn’t have a choice but to go flat out and give everything.”
Having officially retired from full-time competition back in 2019, Solberg reflected back on his number one rally to line up and compete in every year: Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo
“The race and the shock of the year was obviously the Monte Carlo Rally,” explained the 51-year-old Solberg. “For me, I never won it. I did it so many times. Oliver won more stages there this year in Monte Carlo then I won there in all of my career. And then there was the thing he was doing at the last race. To even believe that you can still win the championship when everybody said it was impossible was amazing. He was still trying and lost it 150 meters before the finish!
“I mean it was so many things. Oliver knows that his mother and father are very determined and do everything they can for what we do. And Oliver took it from his own heart that he wanted it so much. It’s something that you can’t learn. It’s something that you just basically have to have.”
Raised on a Norwegian farm, Solberg launched his motorsports career be becoming the Norwegian campion of radio controlled cars in 1987. From there Solberg won national titles in autocross before gravitating toward rally.
All things considered, did Solberg ever envision becoming a world champion?
“No chance!” he declared. “Honestly. We were born on the farm and we were driving in the fields. We had a lot of pigs and animals and it was hard work to live on the farm. Radio controlled cars were a lot of our passion at that time. I was the youngest ever Norwegian champion in radio controlled cars. But I was a mechanic. Me and my brother, we were building cars and engines.
“That’s basically where everything started. Then we just had fun. We did autocross and hill climb and things just basically happened. I tried to make a name for myself to continue because my parents had zero money. It was impossible. I had determination at that time and I thought everything was possible. That’s why my company is called Petter Solberg 110% it’s named that because nobody believes that you can do more than 100-percent. I always believe it’s possible, you know?”
In 1999, Ford signed Solberg to a five year deal to compete in the World Rally Championship
“I was with Ford first,” Solberg explained. “I was teammates with Carlos Sainz and Colin McRea in 1999. That was my first team. It was fantastic. I was good friends with Carlos and Colin. I looked up to Colin so much. We were best friends. Fantastic guy. We had good fun. And he taught me so many bad things at the same time. He also taught me good things.”
In mid-2000, Solberg stunned the WRC community by signing a contract with Subaru.
“I got an offer from Subaru two or three times and I said no and I told the Ford guys about it,” described Solberg. “My new contract with Ford never came as we planned. I signed with Subaru Japan and then I won the world championship with them. I was there with Subaru and Fuji Heavy Industries for nine years. It was a fantastic relationship. Incredible times. If somebody is wishing to try to get Subaru back in the world championship, that is definitely me.”
In 2003, Petter Solberg claimed the World Rally Championship.
“I was still pretty young and I knew I was fast,” Solberg said. “That was no problem. I was maybe lacking a little bit of experience. At the same time, when you have a good rhythm and a good feeling with the car and everything, you’re right there. And it was a different points system at that time. Everything was close. We were four people trying to win the world championship in the last round. It was pressure until the last day. We always believed in it. If you don’t believe, there is no point to be there.
“To win the championship was incredible. I mean if you look at the TV pictures from that time after the finish line and all the people around, it went maniac. Even in Norway, the king and the prime minister were at the biggest football match in Norway the same day as the final rally. The king and the prime minister stopped the match and watched the final stage live on the big TV screens in the football arena. It was absolutely crazy. Over 10,000 people came to my hometown when I won it. It went bonkers. I won all the sports prizes that you can get in Norway. It was an incredible.”
A remarkable father and son motor racing story, does Petter believe he and Oliver are similar in any way in their WRC approaches?
“I think with the driving style and the setup, we are very similar,” he answered. “He always beats me now. He’s doing something in the mid-corner that is different to me. I try to copy it, but I can’t do it. It’s details. I can’t beat him now. It’s hard.”
Intriguingly, in 2013 Petter Solberg made a move to join the FIA World Rallycross Championship. In 2014, Solberg then clinched the inaugural FIA World Rallycross title.
“I think it’s a great sport,” offered Solberg of his tenure in Rallycross. “It’s a lot of horsepower and a lot of big competition and a lot of technical details. We built the car ourselves at that time. 620 horsepower and zero to 60 miles per hour in 1.8 seconds. It’s a fast car. I was the first one to win the world championship in two different type of categories. It’s an awesome achievement and I’m very proud of that.”
While Oliver Solberg’s 2026 WRC campaign ended in heartbreak and disappointment, the Solberg family has totally shaken it all off and is very much looking forward to the Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo on January 21.
“I think the learning of what they have done this year, Oliver is going into next year with huge confidence of strategy, speed and determination,” offered Solberg of his son come 2027. “I think people are scared of him, that’s for sure.”
