If you were expecting fanfares, ceremonials or a parade of marching elephants – like Verdi’s epic Aida chorus – to celebrate Lancia’s return to rallying, you would have been disappointed. In fact, the only elephant in evidence was the famous elefantino on the HF logo that is synonymous with high performance (or ‘high fidelity’) Lancias: apparently chosen by Gianni Lancia because, once an elephant starts charging, you can never really stop it.

Instead, Lancia’s home on the Monte Carlo Rally – for the first time in 35 years – was a reasonably modest tent, with the only operatic flourish being a flame-thrower (actually a repurposed patio heater) to keep everyone warm in the near-subzero temperatures of the Gap service park.

Those people in their new navy blue Lancia Corse HF jackets were a huge mix – including French engineers, a Russian driver competing under a Bulgarian flag, his co-driver from Kyrgyzstan, and yes, the occasional Italian too.

But what they all have in common is Stellantis: the international conglomerate that counts brands such as Peugeot, Citroën, Opel and now Lancia within its sporting portfolio. To name just a few.

Even though the Stellantis name never even existed before 2021, it inherited a vast legacy of motor sport and specifically rallying, mainly thanks to the exploits of Peugeot, and more recently, Citroën.

This very relevant know-how, allied to the storied history of Lancia, should make for a winning combination. That’s also down to people such as Didier Clément: Lancia Corse HF’s new team principal, best known as the engineer who guided Sébastien Loeb to an astonishing nine WRC titles in different flavours of Citroën.

Once Citroën withdrew from the top class as a factory team at the end of 2019, the focus shifted to customer competition using various iterations of the C3, with the ultimate evolution being the current Rally2 model. All that data has now been condensed into the hopes of a nation, as Lancia makes its long-awaited comeback.

“It’s true that we have a bit of knowledge from the past!” jokes Clément modestly. “But this is really just the start of the journey with Lancia. Everything has gone well so far; we’ve got a big test programme planned throughout the year and we can already see areas to improve. Of course, the experience of the whole team is a very important part of that.”

“We have a bit of knowledge from the past! But this is really the start of the journey”

Hundreds of winning rally cars have been built over the years from the Peugeot and Citroën workshops near Versailles, and this is the practical heritage that the latest generation of Lancia is fortunate to be born into. But there’s no doubt that its parents speak French: the 2026 incarnation of Lancia’s Squadra Corse – first seen back in 1963 and founded by Cesare Fiorio to field the gorgeous Fulvia Coupé – has about as much in common with the Italian team that bowed out of the WRC at the end of 1991 as a paper plane does with Concorde. For a start, despite all the hype, there’s been no official confirmation yet that Lancia will be returning to the top Rally1 category – although the hope and expectation is there from every stakeholder in the sport.

For now, Lancia is competing in the lesser Rally2 class: where the cars are a bit slower than the headlining category, but cost less than half the money to buy and run, making them much more appealing to customers. And compared to the extravagant WRC days of the past, when most teams had a fleet of helicopters and it wasn’t unheard of to go Safari testing for three months, modern motor sport has to pay its way. For that, economies of scale are important. Which is why there are inevitably some similarities and common philosophies between the Rally2 versions of the Lancia Ypsilon and Citroën C3.

Clément and the Stellantis technical team can’t after all ‘unlearn’ the knowledge they have gained from other cars over the years, and it makes absolute sense to share resources – just as the group also does with all its road cars.

Purists might hate how the Lancia Rally2 is built in Satory, near Versailles, but while there are some shared parts with the C3 (particularly when it comes to the engine and gearbox architecture) there are equally many points of difference.

At the heart of those are the diverse platforms that the two equivalent road cars are based on. The new Ypsilon uses the latest Stellantis CMP basis, whereas the C3 traces its lineage to what was originally the PSA Group’s PF1 platform dating from the early 2000s. A lot of evolution has happened since then, with the result that the newer car has a much lighter chassis and superior packaging – which translates into a distinct advantage on the stages.

While the C3 and Ypsilon are quite similar to drive – both conforming to a tight framework of Rally2 regulations – the Lancia is said to feel more ‘alive’, with a sharper turn-in and improved dynamics, influenced by factors such as better base aerodynamics and optimal weight distribution.

“In Rally2 cars are a bit slower than the headlining category”

Moscow-born factory driver Nikolay Gryazin, who also has plenty of experience of the C3, points out: “There’s no one particular area where I would say the Ypsilon is strongest. It’s just very good in every aspect, very easy to drive, and that adds up to a really nice all-round package.”

As Eugenio Franzetti, the director of Lancia Corse, explains: “What this car definitely isn’t is a reworked Citroën. There will always be people who like to say things like that, but it simply isn’t true. This car was independently designed by Stellantis Motorsport, built in Satory, and tested on our circuit at Balocco in Italy, as well as on real mountain roads. It’s a team effort.”