2003 World Rally Champion Petter Solberg has been in discussion with Ford World Rally Team boss Malcolm Wilson, about the possibility of a drive for the final two rounds of the season, in Catalunya and the United Kingdom.
Solberg has been using a privately-entered 2005 Citroen Xsara WRC for most of this season, but decided to give up on his own team after finding the car too uncompetitive in recent events.
This also marks the first time Solberg had been at the M-Sport factory in Cumbria since 2000, when he last drove for Ford before switching to Subaru.
“M-Sport is a very impressive place. I had a long talk with Malcolm, we talked more than we had before. It was good to do this. We talked about the early days and we had a nice conversation. It was very nice to be back.”
However Solberg has also been in contact with arch-rivals Citroen and their team boss Olivier Quensel, and even tested a C4 Rally Car a few weeks ago.
It is not certain which team he would drive for; a drive with Citroen would likely be with the Citroen Junior Team, as former Subaru team-mate Chris Atkinson drove for them in the season opener, Rally Ireland. However, with Ford works driver Jari-Matti Latvala suffering another confidence-shattering moment at Rally Poland, and pressure on him to help reel in Citroen in the Manufacturer’s title race, Solberg could well replace him and help score those crucial points. Another option is a ride with the semi-works Stobart VK team.
Solberg has not hinted at which way he will go, stating: “No decisions have been taken yet. We will have to wait and see later this week what we do for the rest of the year.”
