Oliver Solberg gives an explanation on why he chose to remain at Skoda Motorsport and Toksport this year considering what happened with Hyundai in 2022.
The Swede driver secured a partial programme with Hyundai Motorsport and made his Rally1 debut with the i20N in 2022, but the Alzenau-based team decided not to extend his deal for one more season. As a consequence of that, Solberg returned back to the WRC2 class with Toksport and the new Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 in 2023 where he won two events 49 stages on his category. After the successful year he had with Skoda, he confirmed that he will continue with them for 2024 starting from Rallye Monte Carlo this week while his second outing will be at Rally Sweden next month.
"The dream was to do Rally1, of course, but after what happened last time with Hyundai, I wanted to make sure that it was proper and its quality and I know that I can do well", Solberg said.
"But I felt that Skoda came in with such a good offer and belief in us that we can do well so.
"I felt that I am still so young so I don’t want to rush anything that is halfway, so I wanted to do Rally2 with the Skoda team and do a lot of rounds.
"It was a very hard decision but in the end what Skoda came to us with is the absolute best option.
"Obviously, the Toyota GR Yaris Rally2 is very attractive now but I wanted to build on something I have already built.
"The Toyota is new, we don’t know if it will be fast and we don’t know about the reliability.
"I wanted to stick with what I have and I got a fantastic offer that I couldn’t say no to.
"It is a dream scenario with Skoda".
Source: Motorsport.com
Photo Credits: Oliver Solberg
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