Lancia’s sporting director Eugenio Franzetti has defined why the model is making its rally return in Rally4 and what’s required to make a comeback to the World Rally Championship.
Lancia, the winner of a document 10 WRC constructors’ titles (1974-1976, 1983, 1987-1992), is about to return to the rally phases subsequent yr with its all-new Ypsilon Rally4 automobile. Officially launched last month, the automobile will compete within the Italian Rally Championship and the newly created one-make Lancia Rally Trophy.
The creation of the two-wheel drive Ypsilon Rally4 marks a return to rally for Lancia, 50 years after it gained its first WRC title with the legendary Stratos in 1974.
Whereas Lancia’s emergence has created a lot fanfare, there had been hypothesis it might contemplate a Rally2 programme. It in the end confirmed a Rally4 challenge that can see the model contest the 2026 European Rally Championship.
Lancia has not dominated out a future WRC comeback and would contemplate forming a marketing strategy as soon as the WRC has introduced its 2027 technical laws. The FIA is predicted to disclose its new laws in December this yr.
In keeping with Franzetti, the steadiness of the Rally4 laws was among the many issues that swayed the carmaker to make its return on the decrease finish of the rally pyramid.
“What we’d like is to have the principles [2027 regulations], we have to understand how the Rally2 of the longer term shall be made and the way the Rally1 of the longer term shall be made. As soon as we perceive this, in a couple of months we are able to additionally perceive how a lot it prices to make them and the way a lot. After which as soon as we perceive the principles, we are able to create a marketing strategy,” Franzetti informed Autosport’s Italian sister version.
“As soon as the marketing strategy has been created, we are able to put the prices on one aspect of the size, and the worth of visibility and the income on the opposite aspect, and perceive if this scale is a scale that’s optimistic.
“We do motorsport and there’s a return on funding. The return on funding is given on one hand by the technical and logistical prices of doing it, then again it’s considerably the worth of visibility, which has an incredible significance. This visibility additionally brings you sponsors, companions and so forth. All this clearly have to be extraordinarily optimistic.
“Right this moment the one sure rule is Rally4. We all know how it’s made, how a lot it prices and every little thing. That is why Lancia is again with a Rally4. The one sure factor we all know is the regulation, it is clear, it is a unprecedented product, fascinating from a racing viewpoint and from a business viewpoint.”
Lancia Ypsilon Rally4
Picture by: Lancia
Reducing prices and the introduction of a value cap are components that would curiosity Lancia to rejoin the WRC.
Franzetti additionally admitted to being an admirer of the Rally2 class, which Lancia’s proprietor the Stellantis Group is already seen in via the Citroen C3 Rally2 programme.
“Let’s attempt to create championships that value rather less and which have a value cap, after which, staying inside it, you do what you need,” he added.
“You need to make a championship with a finite variety of thousands and thousands, after which the engineers can unleash their creativeness, realizing that motorsport is used as a promotional device and subsequently in any case everybody will carry what they know the best way to do additionally in phrases and ultimately it is a showcase.
“Right this moment we’re all shifting in the direction of hybrid, electrical, electrified. I think about that everybody needs to show that they understand how to try this factor there. However a value cap can be sufficient after which go away house for the others.
“The Rally2 is a really fascinating automobile as a result of it is quick, it allows you to win [national] championships, clearly the European championship, which lets you go very quick additionally in WRC.
“Right this moment, with few Rally1s [in WRC], in case you have a Rally2 you may as well get into the highest 10, even get near the highest 5 and you’ve got loopy visibility. After which it is a business product, it is a product that you simply promote and whoever buys it’s joyful, it [the car] runs properly, has an appropriate value per kilometre and so forth. The Rally2 was a particularly intelligent specification.”