President Peña hopes to bring Solberg his winning touch

Paraguay's President Santiago Peña is back at it again. Returning to the ueno Rally del Paraguay shakedown for a second year running, the head of state decided to switch up his passenger seat routine by taking a wild ride alongside none other than Oliver Solberg.

Now, there is a method to the madness here. Last year, Peña jumped into a car with Sébastien Ogier during shakedown, and the Frenchman went on to take both the rally victory and the championship. Naturally, Solberg is now hoping that same presidential good fortune rubs off on him in 2026.

Recounting last year's encounter, President Peña explained the exact demand he made to Ogier before they left the line. "Last year I jumped into a car with Sébastien here, who was hoping to reach the top…and I asked him one thing. I said, ‘Séb, you cannot slow down with me, because if you slow down, people are going to think, okay, the President's not ready for this. So you need to speed up.’ He sped up, he beat his own time, and at the end he won the Rally of Paraguay, and at the end he won the championship.

When it came time to pick a driver for this year, Peña noted that people around him joked it would be "too much of an advantage" to ride with Ogier again. That opened the door for a brand new pairing. Following their flat-out blast through the 5.60km Carmen del Paraná shakedown stage, the President was beaming and even joked that he is fully prepared to step in and co-drive for Solberg should regular co-driver Elliott Edmondson happen to be unavailable.

Speaking on the experience, President Peña was full of praise for his driver. "I feel blessed because this is a life experience, to be next to such a wonderful guy like Oliver. Not only a great driver, but here in Paraguay he made such a great impact from last year, from the moment that he stepped [off the plane]. So everybody is cheering for him, and I'm also cheering for him. Maybe I'm going to be raising my glass to cheer with him on Sunday afternoon."

Asked for his thoughts on Sunday, Solberg kept it simple and smiled: "He’s my lucky charm, so we will try our best."