Life in the fast lane
The WRC circuit’s pretty boy harbours a desire to win
SINCE Petter Solberg joined the elite band of World Rally Championship drivers the sport has seen a growing interest – especially from women!
Petter’s undeniable good looks and winning ways (you only see him not smiling when he’s having problems on a rally) have earned him the nickname Hollywood. He is one of the most effervescent and popular drivers in the WRC, and one of the fastest too.
The 2003 World Rally Champion is a superstar in his native Norway; crowds of his most loyal supporters turn up at every WRC event to cheer on their hero. But don’t be fooled into thinking that Petter is just about a crowd-pleasing exterior. Underneath he’s a determined competitor with a relentless work ethic and his sights set on breaking Tommi Makinen’s record of four consecutive WRC titles.
“I’ve wanted to be a rally driver for as long as I can remember. My parents were both rallycross drivers and my brother and I were always being taken along to watch them race and help them prepare the cars, so I’ve been around motorsport pretty much all my life”.
He can’t think what he would do if he weren’t rallying: “I’ve never really given it much thought. My parents run a farm, so perhaps something on that? I hope I never have to find out”.
Going all around the world every year to far-flung events means he sees less than he’d like of his wife and young son. “It can be hard, but Pernilla and Oliver come to about half of the rallies, so we do see each other more than most people think. It helps that she’s a rally driver too of course; she understands the early mornings and late nights better than anyone”.
There’s global TV coverage of the WRC and Petter agrees that the PR aspect is now almost as important as the ability to drive fast “The WRC is a show and without spectators I doubt any car manufacturers would bother paying millions of dollars to take part in it. The PR things that we do are designed to bring the WRC to the attention of the public and that’s very important so I always try to get involved”.
Though rally drivers don’t get much ‘down time’ – in between events they do testing and development – Petter likes to use his spare time to keep fit “I’ve got into fitness training in the past couple of years. Subaru has a human performance team that spent a lot of effort designing me a training programme and I love it. Far more than I thought I would if I’m honest. So when I have some time away from rallies and my family I’ll do some running, cycling or boxing. In Norway there are lots of winter sports opportunities too”.
Petter’s rise to the top of his sport was meteoric; some drivers wait years to wear the World Champion’s crown, but he achieved it just four years after making his works debut (with Ford) and exactly twelve months after his first WRC win, with Subaru, so what’s his greatest ambition?
“To win the next rally I enter. If I keep doing that then I’ll be fine”.
Seven Questions:
What car do you drive?
I have seven different Subarus
Describe your perfect weekend
I win on a rally
Assuming you believe in reincarnation, who or what would you come back as?
Me! Nobody else – I’m a lucky guy, I think my life is perfect
What is your greatest fear?
Living on the edge when I’m driving a rally car
What is your earliest memory?
It took me five minutes to think of an answer, so you can see I look forward and not back
What did you have for breakfast?
Fruit
What was the last item of clothing you bought?
I bought a new wardrobe of designer gear in San Remo
