The Petter Solberg World Rally Team was a team that competed in the World Rally Championship from

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

, owned by Norwegian driver Petter Solberg.

2009

The team was founded in early 2009 after Solberg, the 2003 World Rally Champion, was left without a drive following the withdrawal of former employer

Subaru ( or ; ) is the automaker, automobile manufacturing division of Japanese transportation conglomerate (company), conglomerate Subaru Corporation (formerly known as Fuji Heavy Industries), the Automotive industry#By manufacturer, twenty-first ...

from the sport. Solberg had been left without a drive going into the 2009 season, so joined forces with Ken Rees, formerly team co-ordinator at Subaru, to establish his own rally team. He acquired an eight-year-old Citroën Xsara and began competing from the second round of the season,

Rally Norway Rally Norway is the Norwegian rally which has been part of the WRC calendar in 2007 and 2009. This rally and Rally Sweden are the only two rallies part of the WRC calendar which are mainly held on snow, with the Monte Carlo Rally also featuring s ...

, and went on to achieving podiums in Cyprus and Italy. He began using a

Citroën C4 WRC The Citroën C4 WRC is a World Rally Car built for the Citroën World Rally Team by Citroën Racing to compete in the World Rally Championship. It is based upon the Citroën C4 road car and replaced the Citroën Xsara WRC. The car was introduced ...

for the final two rounds of 2009.

2010

Solberg continued to use the C4 WRC during the 2010 season. The team entered a second car on the

2010 Rallye de France The 2010 Rallye de France was the first running of the Rallye de France–Alsace and the eleventh round of the 2010 World Rally Championship season. The rally took place over 1–3 October 2010, and was based in Strasbourg, the capital of the Al ...

for touring car driver Yvan Muller, in a Xsara WRC. 2010 proved to be a very successful season. Solberg finished twelve of the thirteen rounds and amassed eight podiums. This resulted in third place in the final standings, beating factory

Citroën Citroën () is a French automobile brand. The "Automobiles Citroën" manufacturing company was founded in March 1919 by André Citroën. Citroën is owned by Stellantis since 2021 and previously was part of the PSA Group after Peugeot acquired ...

drivers Sébastien Ogier and Dani Sordo as well as works Ford driver Mikko Hirvonen.

2011

For the 2011 season the team used a brand-new Citroën DS3 WRC, and registered for manufacturers' points for the first time. Solberg managed to finish fifth at the opening round in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

after he had his driving licence suspended for speeding on the road section. As this meant he was unable to drive the final stage, his co-driver Chris Patterson took over the wheel. Solberg finished third in Italy and

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

and another podium was looking likely in France, but Solberg was excluded from the results as his DS3 WRC was found to be underweight. Solberg retired from his final WRC event with his own team in Wales and finished fifth in the final standings for the driver's championship, with his team coming fourth in the manufacturers standings. The team also entered drivers in the

SWRC The Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, FIA WRC2 (previously also known as World Rally Championship 2 and WRC 2), is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the main ...

Eyvind Brynildsen Eyvind Brynildsen (born 14 January 1988) is a Norwegian rally driver. During 2011 he competed in the Super 2000 World Rally Championship in a Škoda Fabia S2000. He is currently looking for a drive with the Adapta World Rally Team alongside Mads ...

competed at six rounds for the team in a

Škoda Fabia S2000 The Škoda Fabia S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car built by Škoda Motorsport. It is based upon the Škoda Fabia road car. History It made its début at Rallye Monte Carlo 2009, with factory team Škoda Motorsport and drivers Jan Kopecký and ...

, co-driven by

Cato Menkerud Cato Menkerud (born August 23, 1973 in Lillehammer, Norway) is a rally co-driver. He started as a co-driver in 1992 for his father Helge Menkerud. In addition to Henning Solberg, he has co-driven for Petter Solberg, Birger Gundersen, Thomas ...

, a former co-driver to both Petter and his brother Henning, and eventual WRC Academy champion Craig Breen drove a

Ford Fiesta S2000 The Ford Fiesta S2000 is a Super 2000 rally car built by M-Sport. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car. It made its racing debut at the 78th Rallye Monte Carlo in 2010, with factory team M-Sport and drivers Mikko Hirvonen and Julien Maur ...

for the team in Spain. Brynildsen and Breen finished eighth and tenth in the SWRC respectively, with Brynildsen gaining the team's best finish, coming home second in France. Solberg competed in his final event in a

by winning the Bettega Memorial Rallysprint, beating

MotoGP Grand Prix motorcycle racing is the premier class of motorcycle road racing events held on road circuits sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM). Independent motorcycle racing events have been held since the start ...

rider

Andrea Dovizioso Andrea Dovizioso (born 23 March 1986) is an Italian former professional motorcycle racer. He raced with WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team for the 2022 season but announced his intended-retirement after the Misano round in September. Dovizioso was t ...

in the final. The team closed down after Solberg announced he was to drive for the Ford World Rally Team in 2012.

WRC Results

References

External links

{{commonscat
Petter Solberg's official website
World Rally Championship teams Intercontinental Rally Challenge teams Auto racing teams established in 2009 Auto racing teams disestablished in 2011