by Rob Wilkins


Subaru team leader, Petter Solberg has pledged that the Banbury-based squad will come back strongly next season, to vanquish memories of 2006, a year in which they failed to win even one event.

Speaking to Crash.net earlier this month, 'Hollywood' added that while he is going to be extremely busy testing before the Rallye Monte Carlo, the opening round of the 2007 FIA WRC, which gets underway in less than three weeks time, he is convinced things will be different and that he will be able to fight with Citroen's Sebastien Loeb and BP Ford's Marcus Gronholm, who, between them, won all the events in '06, bar one.

"I enjoy this [rallying] so much. It is no problem [to do so much testing before Monte]. I go with the flow. I am waiting like a big kid [for the new car now]. I wanted it for January, but of course it is difficult. We will see. I am looking forward to next year. We will fight very hard," he noted. "It will be a different season in 2007 - trust me. I am going to bloody beat Sebastien and win the drivers' championship!"

As for 2006, Petter wasn't especially talkative and summed up the season pretty quickly: "It has been absolutely shit!" he added. "It's been nothing to talk about this season. We will forget this year and think about next. It is better to forget it - and don't remind me again!"

Despite that though there were some highs - and his form on the Wales Rally GB at the start of December, when he finished third and took his fourth podium of the season - having also managed the same feat in Mexico, Argentina and Australia, does illustrate that it wasn't all bad.

"I tried everything I could [on the Wales Rally GB] - and that is the main thing. We got third place and were fighting very hard all the time. Many things have happened through the three-days - but that is life! It is a good ending to the season for the mechanics - and everybody. We will be back strongly next year," he concluded.