[WRC] News & Rumours 2019

[Luijbregts]

Great news. Oliver Solberg will join Subary USA for the whole rally championship in 2019. A Solberg back driving for Subaru!!

Source: https://www.oliversolberg.com/solbergjoinssubaru

[KKS]

how about his 17yrs and driving without driver licence?

[mousti]

Just getting his license there? If I Remember Well it's from 16 years old possible. Or do it like Kalle in Italy ..

Verstuurd vanaf mijn ONEPLUS A6013 met Tapatalk

[mknight]

Not sure how good idea that is, the experience from there and with that car is not directly related to driving R5 or WRC on other rounds.

On the other hand if he drives in Europe in Polo R5 and then gets paid by Subaru to drive few US rounds, why not.

[Luijbregts]

In the US you are allowed to drive from 16. He has a latvian license. Probably a dispensation on Rally routes or co-driver drives between stages. My guess however is that they will find a solution that he can get his US drivers license. My guess as well is that he will have in hist contract that he can drive his Polo R5 in Latvia for that championship, but I am not sure about this. I do not know what his contract includes or excludes. But a great opportunity for him to start with a factory driver contract at 17 !!

[Jarek Z]

Not sure how good idea that is, the experience from there and with that car is not directly related to driving R5 or WRC on other rounds.

And the level of competition over there is much lower than in Europe.
But good luck to him!

[Gregor-y]

15/16 is the age for getting a learning permit in most states, and then maybe a few months extra for a license exam that may have some limits (usually a midnight curfew) again depending on the state. Any European license would probably be accepted, too.

Not sure how the Subaru will work as training for R5 or WRC, but it will have a lot of power if nothing else. As for competition there's Pastrana and Block who if nothing else know the roads. Dave Higgins will still be the man to beat.

Left field challenger would be Pitor Fatela in a Polish Fiesta kit car. He's done well for the last few years despite crashing his Subaru at 100 Acre Wood in 2016.

I'll find out in a few weeks.

[KKS]

Next rally for Loeb - Corsica. According interview to swedish radio
/Didn't hear that info before/

[dimviii]

Rallirinki / Teemu
‏ @HartusvuoriWRC

In his interview for @ksmlfi, Marcus Grönholm in his role as @HuttunenRacing manager says that Jari Huttunen is still linked to Hyundai, but there are no drives promised for this season.

[Allez Andruet]

Rallirinki / Teemu
‏ @HartusvuoriWRC

In his interview for @ksmlfi, Marcus Grönholm in his role as @HuttunenRacing manager says that Jari Huttunen is still linked to Hyundai, but there are no drives promised for this season.

I still think Huttunen might get the call for Finland. Loeb doesn't want to do it and it's probably better if Sordo doesn't do it either.