SOLBERG’S2019PLEDGE
Triple FIA World champion Petter Solberg will continue driving in the Championship next season.
The Norwegian delivered his best performance of the season in Austin in the USA two weeks ago and only missed out on victory due to a mistake in the final.
Solberg recently announced that he has been suffering with lung disease sarcoidosis since being diagnosed 12 months ago but is feeling increasingly fitter.
Despite admitting to considering the necessity to find a replacement driver during his illness earlier this year, Solberg has quashed suggestion that he might be about to hang up his helmet at the end of 2018.
“Next year I will drive,” he told Motorsport News. “I have a plan [for the future], hopefully that goes together with Volkswagen’s plan how we do it. We are having good discussions and we need stability for everybody to look at the long term.”
Solberg said he will head up his PSRX outfit, which is backed by Volkswagen in the series, as a team owner when he stops driving. The 2014 and ‘15 champion said: “That’s the plan, the next role is to have the team to develop drivers to get them to be champions. To use my knowledge with the car and set-up and for them to be not going in the wrong direction at all, that’s the main thing.”
Solberg’s 17-year-old son Oliver claimed the Rallyx Nordic title last weekend ( see story, below) in Sweden, but Solberg Sr is keen for Oliver to forge his own career path. “I try to stay more away from Oliver’s racing when he’s driving,” said his father. “I focus on the technical side of the car but if there’s any problems I never go in to anything. He’s a kid, he has to learn, OK it’s hard sometimes but I think it’s best they fix that themselves.”