From his debut aged 15 to a first factory Toyota Rally1 outing, Oliver Solberg has a strong affinity with the Baltic region
Photography by European Rally Championship, Red Bull & Girardo & Co. Archive
Words by David Evans, DirtFish Head of Media
It’s the second weekend of 2017. It’s Alūksne, on a typically snowy mid-winter Saturday afternoon. An unremarkable looking Peugeot arrives into the finish with a big, wide smile behind the wheel.
There’s nothing new in a 15-year-old completing their first rally in this part of the world. But this is no regular teenager. Climbing out of the #73 208 R2 is Oliver Solberg. He’s on the road. His rally career has begun.
Fast forward eight years, head north a couple of hours from Latvia’s highest city and you’ll arrive in Tartu, just in time for what Solberg is calling the biggest moment of his life: his debut aboard a factory Toyota GR Yaris Rally1. It’s going to be quite a week at Rally Estonia.
Fortunately for the now 23-year-old, he knows this part of the world well. Starting from that first event in Latvia, he’s come on quite a journey through the Baltics. While the rest of the rally world obsessed with the modern-day Group B that was the ’17 car, and five years on from his world champion father Petter calling time on his own professional rally career, Oliver started on his own road.
Diminutive Peugeot 208 R2 served Solberg well on Baltic stages
The first two years were largely about Baltic rallying as he waited patiently for an 18th birthday that would be the key to competing more widely in Europe. As you would expect, there were plenty of class wins aboard the front-wheel-drive Peugeot, but it was always going to be difficult to set the world alight in a car like that. For that reason, 2017 went mostly under the radar. He was one of a bunch of teenagers getting between the trees for the first time.
Solberg’s debut in a rally car competing outside the Baltics came with a Ford Fiesta WRC at Monza Rally. He finished second… to Kalle Rovanperä. But beat Teemu Suninen.
Then it was back to some more swashbuckling in the diminutive 208 through 2018. Parallel to leveling a rallying learning curve, Solberg was still able to demonstrate his ability when offered total traction and a few more horses. He put the family DS3 RX Supercar to good use by winning RallyX Nordic – and who could forget that run up the hill at Goodwood Festival of Speed?
Learning done, teeth cut, the Peugeot was retired at the top of 2019 and replaced by the Volkswagen Polo R5. Back to Alūksne for a third year in succession. This time with a car capable of winning overall.
Success in the region came at ERC level in 2019
What happened? Solberg won overall. Same in Sarma a month later, same – very famously – in Latvia’s biggest motorsport event of the season, the European Rally Championship qualifier. Aged 17, Oliver became the youngest ever winner of an ERC round.
Later that same summer, Estonia was another huge highlight as Oliver took some of fastest R5 drivers around to the cleaners. He even had the temerity to beat Markko Märtin’s Ford Fiesta WRC on the odd stage. Just to be clear, the Estonian legend was very much on a farewell tour aboard a hired M-Sport car in which he was keen to avoid incurring any kind of insurance excess…
It’s important to note, 2019 was also the year Solberg went Stateside in a factory Subaru WRX STI. Second in 100 Acre Wood, he won Olympus, STPR and LSPR.
By the end of the year, Solberg’s Baltic journey was done, with him happily crowned Latvian Champion. The region had served him well. Now it’s time for this story’s next chapter.
Words:David Evans
Tags: Latvian Rally Championship, Oliver Solberg, Rally Estonia 2025, WRC, WRC 2025
Publish Date July 8, 2025 DirtFish 
https://dirtfish-editorial.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com/2024/07/sjOq8oLQ-Girardo_Co._Archive_899731-780x520.jpg July 8, 2025
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