Yahoo Movies Lancia Could Be Heading Back Into Rallying Soon
Historically, Lancia is not a racing brand. It is instead a rallying one, and ten manufacturer's championships over 19 World Rally Championship seasons in the eras that defined the sport make an argument that it was once the greatest rallying brand to ever run. Lancia was out of rallying by 1994 and has not returned in the 30 years since, but that could change soon.
In a short statement to Dirtfish, the brand says "We are working on the return of Lancia to rally, knowing that it is a significant marketing lever." The statement goes on to caution that "[Lancia] will return to the world of rally only if the return on investment meets our expectations," suggesting that a return to a factory entry in the top level of the World Rally Championship is not necessarily imminent.
Instead, reporting from Dirtfish suggests that Lancia could take over control of the Citroen C3 program currently running in Rally2. That operation is also owned by their mutual parent company Stellantis and could quickly pivot toward Lancia branding. Success at that level could in turn lead to a return to the top-level Rally1 as it exists today or lead Lancia to eventually enter a planned EV class that WRC officials hope will have performance parity with the existing gas-powered category.
A return would come shortly after last month's confirmation of the return of the HF badge, Lancia's once and future performance line. That cheery elephant is set to come back on a variant of the new all-electric Lancia Ypsilon, the brand's all-electric sub-compact hatchback. If Lancia opts to eventually run an electric rally car, the Ypsilon HF would make for an obvious branding choice.
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