M-Sport boss Malcolm Wilson 𝄹has paid tribute to Petter Solberg after the Norwegian confirmed that he won't compete in the World Rally Championship next 𓃲season.

Solberg announced on Tuesday that he 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:would sit out the 2013 campaign as he waꦦsn't prepared to pay for a drive following Ford's decision to withdraw its ma♕nufacturer support for the M-Sport squad.

The 2003 champion hasn't ruled out a return to the series in future, but Wilson admitted it would be strange not to have the Norwegi🌺an in the paddock when the WRC heads to Monte Carlo for the first round of the 2013 campaign.

"It will be strange to begin a WRC season with no Petter Solberg in the service park, and I will miss him on a personal as well as a professional level," Wilson said. "When we first signed him back in 1999, he was a fresh-faced youngster with a lot of potential and equally a lot to learn, and when he returned to Ford more than a decade later as a world champion, it was like he had come home.

"It was a pleasure to have Petter in the team this year and we are delighted to have shared in some of 🦄his many successes in rallying. We wish him well for the future."

Ford Rac𒈔ing senior manager Gerard Quinn also paid tribute to th𓄧e former Subaru man.

"Petter has been a charismatic and popular member of the service park for over ꧟a decade, and we are sure that motorsport has not seen the last﷽ of him," he said. "All of us at Ford wish him every future success."