Beginning with Rally Sweden, 18 years old Oliver Solberg and co-driver Aaron Johnston will share a ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo in selected European rounds of the WRC3 category of the FIA World Rally Championship 2020.
Oliver Solberg has rallying in his genes. Father Petter became FIA World Rally Champion in 2003, mother Pernilla was as well successfully competing in international and national rallies. Winning Rally Liepāja at the age of 17 in 2019, Solberg junior became the youngest driver ever to win a round of the FIA European Rally Championship. During the penultimate round of the FIA World Rally Championship 2019 in Wales, he again delivered impressing stage times in the very competitive field of R5 drivers. “For me, it is all about learning. I am really looking forward to my first rally with the ŠKODA FABIA Rally2 evo in Sweden,“ says Solberg, who already had the chance to test his new rally car.
ŠKODA Motorsport boss Michal Hrabánek is looking forward to the new season as well. “For 2020, we will focus more on customer teams and on the development of young and promising drivers. We are happy to cooperate with Oliver and his team for the WRC3 championship of 2020. He already proved his speed – now we are keen to see his progress throughout the season,” he says.
ŠKODA was the choice of champions already in the past, boosting the careers of many young drivers. Driving a ŠKODA FABIA S2000, for example Andreas Mikkelsen conquered the Intercontinental Rally Championship (IRC) in 2011 and 2012. Juho Hänninen won the IRC already in 2010, the FIA SWRC (the WRC2 predecessor) in 2011 and European Rally Championship (ERC) in 2012 with a ŠKODA FABIA S2000. Stablemates Jan Kopecký and Esapekka Lappi became ERC Champions in 2013 and 2014 respectively.
The ŠKODA FABIA R5 also played a major role in the early careers of Esapekka Lappi and Pontus Tidemand, who both became WRC2 Champions driving for ŠKODA. And last but not least, Jan Kopecký not only played a key role in developing the Czech rally car into the most successful model of its category. He also became WRC2 Champion himself in 2018. The following year, Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen took the WRC2 Pro title of the FIA World Rally Championship with the new ŠKODA FABIA R5 evo.
The calendar of the 2020 FIA World Rally Championship
Event/Date
Monte-Carlo 23/01/–26/01/2020
Sweden 13/02/–16/02/2020
Mexico 12/03/–15/03/2020
Argentina 23/04/–26/04/2020
Portugal 21/05/–24/05/2020
Italy 04/06/–07/06/2020
Kenya 16/07/–19/07/2020
Finland 06/08/–09/08/2020
New Zealand 03/09/–06/09/2020
Turkey 24/09/–27/09/2020
Germany 15/10/–18/10/2020
Great Britain 29/10/–01/11/2020
Japan 19/11/–22/11/2020
