Lancia Corse team principal Didier Clément says his team’s future in the World Rally Championship is “not fixed”, with the Stellantis-owned brand not currently set to build a Rally2 WRC Kit due to entry obligations.
The FIA approved WRC 2027 technical regulations earlier this week which introduced a ‘Rally2 WRC Kit’ with improved aero and lower weight to close the predicted gap to WRC27 machines.
While M-Sport has confirmed that it will homologate this kit, Škoda has opted out due to lead time challenges and Toyota will not make one available either, given its focus is on its new WRC27-specification machine instead. Hyundai meanwhile has said the kit is not its priority.
Now Lancia, which only introduced its Ypsilon Rally2 HF Integrale this year, has signalled it may not build a Rally2 WRC Kit either – not due to the kit itself but the stipulation a manufacturer must enter all rounds of the first season if it homologates said kit.
The requirement to run at least two cars on every single round of the championship in 2027 is currently prohibiting Lancia from beginning work on homologating the upgrade kit.
Lancia doesn't have an issue with the regulation, just not the budget to commit to them yet
“We have two problems,” Clément told DirtFish.
“We have to do the kit in six months. It’s possible, of course, because in fact, it [the scope of the kit] is really limited. But the second problem – and it’s the main one – to homologate the rally machines, you have to enter in a full championship all the events with two cars.
“For Stellantis, it’s the main issue right now, because the Lancia program is a customer-oriented one. It’s not like some others like Hyundai or so on, who receive a massive budget from the brand. It’s a customer-oriented program. The main issue is to find the budget, because for us, in terms of budget, it’s a massive, massive, massive difference.”
The difference in program cost between its current WRC program – where Yohan Rossel will contest eight events in 2026 and Nikolay Gryazin “a little bit more” – is into the “millions” according to Clement.
“We are probably in the same situation as Škoda,” Clément highlighted. “Because, if I would say, Škoda is not a factory program as well. The reason why they use Toksport is the same as for us [with PH Sport]; it’s a customer program. We are able to finance the budget for this kind of program, for the ‘26 program, and the previous season as well. But for us, it will be a massive step to do the full championship.
“It’s truly open, but we are not sure to be able to enter the full championship.”
Finding budget to expand Lancia’s WRC program is complicated by a recent restructuring of Stellantis’ brand portfolio. In late May, Stellantis announced 70% of its investments would be funnelled into four core brands: Fiat, Peugeot, Jeep and Ram. Lancia, meanwhile, has been demoted to “speciality brand” status and placed under Fiat’s stewardship, rather than operating as an entirely separate car brand.
What speciality brand means has yet to be precisely defined by Stellantis, but DS Automobiles, the only other brand given ‘speciality’ status and placed under Citroën operations, will withdraw from Formula E at the end of the current season, with its new parent Citroën the only Stellantis brand remaining on the grid.
Lancia’s Rally2 machine has valid FIA homologation until 2032 – and the Citroën C3 Rally2 it was heavily based on is homologated until 2030 – so Stellantis machinery will remain in play for customer entrants in the WRC for the next two years and likely beyond that in national competitions. But Lancia Corse’s participation as an entrant remains a question mark beyond the end of the current season.
“For Stellantis and for Lancia, rally is definitely the passion,” said Clement. “We are in the World Championship in different ways for so many decades in the end. In WRC1, in WRC2, it’s a long-term commitment from Stellantis.
“We want to be there, but right now it’s not fixed at all. We’ll see if we’ll be able to do that or not.”
