Rees: Petter will fight on in WRC

Petter Solberg World Rally Team head Ken Rees has vowed to remain positive despite his driver’s unequal struggle for WRC glory.

Solberg, who not only drives a Citroen DS3 WRC in the world championship but also runs his own team, fears his status as a privateer is holding him back from taking a sustained fight to the factory Citroen and Ford squads, which have dominated the WRC in recent seasons.

Despite showing blistering pace and leading rallies, Solberg has finished on the podium just once in seven starts this year and conceded on the last event in Greece that it will be a tall order to win in 2011 due to his limited resources.

But Welshman Rees isn’t prepared to give up and has backed the Norwegian, world champion in 2003, to hit top form during the second half of the season, which begins on Neste Oil Rally Finland at the end of the month.

“We’ve got to keep trying because he’ll be good on the events coming up,” said Rees. “He’ll be good in Finland and if you look at Germany from last year he did a very good performance there. And with the new event in Australia we’ve got to be positive and look that we are going to make the top of the podium.”

He continued: “Petter will keep trying hard, we’ll keep working with Citroen and we’ll get the reliability, we’ll get the performance but you can’t give up, not when you’ve got a driver of Petter’s level who is knocking on the top of the podium. He’s up there with the four or five fastest drivers in the world so there’s no giving up.”

Asked what results Solberg could have achieved this season if he was running with a factory team, Rees continued: “We would be winning but we’re still a customer and we’re still on a small budget. The works drivers have the advantage of a lot more testing and better facilities. Petter has almost got as many fastest stage times as Sebastien Ogier and Sebastien Loeb, we’re up there with them, we just don’t get that final stroke of luck.”