Rallying has its unofficial end-of-season exhibition back.
Monza Rally Show, a regular fixture since the late 1970s, has returned to its format of inviting drivers and teams from the highest level of rallying to show off and have some fun. In between the festivities, there’s also a timed competition taking place on Italy’s oldest racetrack.
Rallying’s biggest names are converging on Milan this week: newly crowned world champion Thierry Neuville and eight-time champ Sébastien Ogier are among the attendees.
For the timed competition element, this year’s WRC2 champion, ERC champion and Italian champion will battle it out for victory.
How does it all work? And who’s in attendance? Answers below!
WRC post-season fever
All three WRC teams are in town, as are four current Rally1 factory drivers.
Outgoing WRC tire supplier Pirelli has revived the event’s exhibition format to act as a farewell to its time as sole supplier at rallying’s highest level – and to remind the world it may be leaving the WRC but not rallying as a whole.
Among the entry is Sébastien Ogier, winner of both world championship editions of the event
Toyota, Hyundai and M-Sport are bringing their Rally1 cars for a series of exhibition runs on the opening days of the event. Ogier and Toyota team principal Jari-Matti Latvala will take turns at the wheel of the GR Yaris Rally1, Neuville and Dani Sordo in the i20 N Rally1 and Hyundai-bound Adrien Fourmaux will make his final appearance in a Ford Puma Rally1. M-Sport’s WRC challenger will also be piloted by Massimo ‘Pedro’ Pedretti.
Once they’re done giving guests a passenger ride they’ll never forget, four of the Rally1 drivers – Neuville, Sordo, Ogier and Fourmaux – will go against the clock in the Masters element of the show on Sunday afternoon.
While the Monza Rally Show has been organized with the cooperation of WRC Promoter this year, it’s not an official WRC round as in 2020 or 2021. Instead, it’s just some fun – both for the drivers at the wheel and the fans in the grandstands.
The competition
Last year’s event was a round of the Italian championship. That’s not the case in 2024 – but there is still a timed competition happening, with Rally2 cars leading the line. It’s no tinpot lineup either: some of the world’s best Rally2 drivers will contest the main event.
Sami Pajari heads the entry list aboard his WRC2 title-winning Toyota GR Yaris Rally2, with reigning two-time European champion Hayden Paddon piloting his Hyundai i20 N Rally2. Four-time Italian champion and 2019 Monza winner Andrea Crugnola is back, piloting his title-winning Citroën C3 Rally2 run by F.P.F Sport.
Andrea Crugnola will be among the favorites, having won the event in 2019
Nikolay Gryazin is another clear contender for victory, swapping his usual Citroën in WRC2 for a Škoda Fabia RS Rally2. Acropolis Rally3 class winner Matteo Fontana and his grandfather, 75-year-old Luigi Fontana, will seat-share a GR Yaris Rally2, while Italian championship regulars like Boštjan Avbelj are also present.
Monza Rally Show is known for bringing in big names from elsewhere in the motorsport world. But the biggest of all is arguably not from motorsport at all: Vincenzo Nibali, one of only seven cyclists to win all three major road racing tours (the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia and Vuelta a España) will make his first foray into rally driving, at the wheel of a national-class GR Yaris.
One big name many will have hoped to see on the entry list is absent: Valentino Rossi. The event’s most successful competitor is now a BMW factory driver, complicating any potential rally outings.
Beating Thierry Neuville to victory in 2015 was one of a record six Monza wins for Valentino Rossi
The format
When Covid-19 swept the world and rallying needed to get inventive to finish its 2020 season, Monza Rally stepped up as the season finale, and continued in that role the following year.
The stage mileage is far from insignificant: at 105 miles, it’s around half the length of a world championship event. There’s a total of nine stages: two on Friday afternoon, five on Saturday and two on Sunday morning. The longest of the event is a five-lap, 20.6-mile loop that combines both the modern racing track and historic oval into one circuit.
After the main event is over, the action reverts to Monza’s main straight, where the Masters Rally Show takes place. Neuville, Sordo, Ogier, Fourmaux and Pajari will be joined by the top three drivers overall from the Monza Rally, plus the nine-fastest drivers on combined times from the two passes of the Autodromo tests on Friday and Sunday – and the two highest-rank drivers from the Yaris Cup class which Nibali is running in.
A short course is laid out with plastic blocks and markers – expect plenty of handbrake turns. Given the tight confines and slow turns, driving a Rally2 isn’t likely to be quite the disadvantage against the Rally1s that it usually is.
The history
There has been rally action at Monza since 1978, when Federico Ormezzano triumphed in a Porsche 911 Carrera. The 1980s were dominated by Lancia drivers: high-profile WRC stars like Attilio Bettega, Adartico Vudafieri and Gianfranco Cunico were early winners of the event.
Its international popularity began to build in the 1990s and 2000s; active Formula 1 drivers like Giancarlo Fisichella and Nicola Larini made star cameos (Larini winning in 1992 and Fisichella narrowly missing the top step in 1997).
Formula 1 driver Nicola Larini piloted Alfa Romeo 155 to victory in 1992
Colin McRae would finish on the podium in 2005 with Škoda. Sébastien Loeb couldn’t resist joining the fun either, adding the 2011 edition winners’ trophy to his bulging silverware cabinet, a year after then team-mate Dani Sordo had done the same.
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic Monza Rally was swiftly reconfigured from a fun exhibition event to the season finale in 2020 and 2021; it even ventured northeast and into the foothills of the Alps for some proper winter rally action, reminiscent of classic Monte Carlo roads with snow and ice. Sébastien Ogier won both editions and the final pair of his eight world titles within the circuit’s confines.
After a year’s break it came back as an Italian championship round for 2023 – and is now targeting a return to its pre-Covid heyday with a revival of the semi-competitive, semi-exhibition format.
Colin McRae starred in a Škoda Fabia at 2005 edition
The schedule
Friday December 6
SS1 Autodromo 1 (6.7 miles) 1342
SS2 Roggia 1 (7.2 miles) 1631
Saturday December 7
SS3 Roggia 2 (7.2 miles) 0802
SS4 Grand Prix 1 (20.6 miles) 1051
SS5 Grand Prix 2 (20.6 miles) 1332
SS6 Parabolica 1 (7 miles) 1612
SS7 Parabolica 2 (7 miles) 1842
Sunday December 8
SS8 Autodromo 2 (6.7 miles) 0802
SS9 Roccolo 1 (12.7 miles) 1051
