As Fiat draw up ambitious rally plans for the 2007 season with the exciting new Grande Punto Rally, news has emerged that they are evaluating developing a full WRC-specification machine in the near future if the FIA World Rally Championship regulations don’t swing towards the Super2000 category. 

For next year’s programme, Fiat will retain the four drivers that between them have claimed three important rally titles since March at the wheel of the new Super2000 Grande Punto.  Giandomenico Basso and co-driver Mitia Dotta raced to the FIA European Rally Championship title as well as claiming the honours in the inaugural International Rally Championship (IRC).  Meanwhile, the highly experienced Paolo Andreucci (with regular co-driver Anna Andreussi alongside) swept to the Italian Rally Championship title, adding to the overall championship successes he has scored in the series in previous years with the front-wheel drive Punto S1600.  As Fiat retain their all-Italian lineup for 2007, these two established rally stars will be joined once again by Andrea Navarra, who backed up Andreucci in the Italian series this year, and youngster Umberto Scandola, who took part in several rounds of the IRC this year, including the Zulu Rally in South Africa, and the Rally Ypres Westhoek in Belgium. 

Next year Basso will return to the international stage to defend his IRC title, this time backed up by Navarra, who along with co-driver Guido d’Amore, will step up from the Italian series.  The FIA recently announced an increase in rounds from four to nine for the second edition of the IRC, and prestige is certain to be guaranteed by the inclusion of rallies in China and Russia, both of which are turning into very important emerging car markets for the big global carmakers.  Other highlights on the 2007 calendar will be the inclusion of the Rally of Turkey, which next year loses its full WRC status but will instead count towards the IRC; while the prestigious and long-standing Rally Ypres Westhoek and Rally Vinho da Madeira will both once again count towards the new series. 

Navarra is an acknowledged gravel rally specialist and with the 2007 IRC calendar set to feature four all-gravel surface rounds (Kenya, Russia, Turkey and China) out of a total of nine events, his experience will complement Basso’s well-proven ability on asphalt.  Currently, Navarra lies in third place overall in the 2006 Italian Rally Championship standings with one round still remaining.  After ten rallies the Italian has 45 points. 

The recently-crowned Italian champion, Paolo Andreucci, will return to the series next year to defend his title.  Andreucci wrapped up the 2006 series ten days ago on the Rally Costa Smeralda, where he won the event outright to notch up an unassailable points lead in the series.
 

With just one round of Fiat’s domestic series remaining, he has 74 points, well out of reach of his closest challenger, Piero Longhi, driving a Group N Subaru Impreza.  Winning the Rally Costa Smeralda was also significant as it was the first gravel triumph for the Super2000 Grande Punto.  Next year, Andreucci is expected to be joined in the factory-supported team by Umberto Scandola.  This year the 21-year-old pedalled the Grande Punto during the first three rounds of the IRC, including the Zulu Rally in South Africa, and then on the Rally Ypres Westhoek, where he was running in second place overall (behind Basso), only to suffer a dramatic accident that saw his car coming to rest submerged in a lake. 

In 2007, Fiat will also bring two experienced private rally preparation outfits into the fold to run the expanded programme, which this year has been handled in-house by the ‘New Business 16’ team.  Turin-based Procar, and the famous Grifone team from Genoa, will both run the Super2000 cars.  Procar in particular has a close recent history with the Fiat factory, running the machines which Andreucci used to claim his first Italian S1600 title in 2002, and then staying with him until 2004 as he drove the potent front-wheel drive Punto Super1600 with huge success, including an outright championship win in 2003. 

However, as the plans for Fiat’s ambitious 2007 rally programme become clearer, news emerges that the carmaker is targeting nothing less than a return to a fully-fledged FIA World Rally Championship programme.  Claudio Berro, currently responsible for the Fiat rally operation, revealed to Autosprint magazine that if the Super2000 regulations are not eventually adopted for the premier series, then Fiat will propose building a full WRC-specification machine, capable of taking their challenge right to the front.  “A World Car Rally version of the Grande Punto will depend on the evolution of the regulations,” Berro recently told the magazine.

Additional reporting by Marco Tenuti