What Lancia needs to do to transform its rally return to the WRC

Lancia’s sporting director Eugenio Franzetti has explained why the brand is making its rally return in Rally4 and what is required to make a comeback to the World Rally Championship.

Lancia, the winner of a record 10 WRC constructors’ titles (1974-1976, 1983, 1987-1992), is set to return to the rally stages next year with its all-new Ypsilon Rally4 car. Officially launched last month, the car will compete in 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 won its first WRC title with the legendary Stratos in 1974. 

While Lancia’s emergence has created much fanfare, there had been speculation it would consider a Rally2 programme. It ultimately confirmed a Rally4 project that will see the brand contest the 2026 European Rally Championship.

Lancia has not ruled out a future WRC comeback and would consider forming a business plan once the WRC has announced its 2027 technical regulations. The FIA is expected to reveal its new regulations in December this year.

According to Franzetti, the stability of the Rally4 regulations was among the considerations that swayed the car maker to make its return at the lower end of the rally pyramid.  

“What we need is to have the rules [2027 regulations], we need to know how the Rally2 of the future will be made and how the Rally1 of the future will be made. Once we understand this, in a few months we can also understand how much it costs to make them and how much. And then once we understand the rules, we can create a business plan,” Franzetti told Motorsport.com’s Italian edition. 

“Once the business plan has been created, we can put the costs on one side of the scale, and the value of visibility and the revenue on the other side, and understand if this scale is a scale that is positive. 

“We do motorsport and there is a return on investment. The return on investment is given on one hand by the technical and logistical costs of doing it, on the other hand it is substantially the value of visibility, which has a great significance. This visibility also brings you sponsors, partners and so on. All this clearly must be extremely positive. 

“Today the only certain rule is Rally4. We know how it is made, how much it costs and everything. That’s why Lancia is back with a Rally4. The only certain thing we know is the regulation, it’s clear,…