Lancia & Monte Carlo Rally

A lot of the social media noise prior to this year’s Monte Carlo rally surrounded Lancia’s return to the WRC in a Rally 2 Ypsilon HF. But what was the source if this interest? Lancia haven’t been a part of the WRC since the end of the 1992 season, nearly 35 years ago, meaning anyone with a genuine memory is at least 40 years old.

The simple answer to this question is that Lancia have won more Monte Carlo rally’s than any other manufacturer with 13 victories, ahead of both Ford and Citroen with 10 each. Looking closer into results reveals Lancia have achieved this record with some very different cars and drivers.

Before the world of purpose designed and built cars, Lancia’s initial victory came in 1954 with Louis Chiron driving an Aurelia GT. Apart from the number on the door, it looks like a standard road car.

NMP

It was 18 years before another Lancia topped the podium, this time Sandro Munari driving a Fulvia. The Fulvia was never the most powerful car, but not only did he win, he achieved this with a 10min 50 sec margin over a Porsche 911!! Sandro would go on to win a total of 4 Monte Carlo’s all in Lancia’s.

1973 saw the formation of the World Rally Championship (WRC). By now rallying was getting serious and professional, whilst other teams developed a variety of road cars for competition Lancia designed the first purpose-built competition car, the Stratos HF. Futuristic, low slung, compact, RWD, with a screaming Ferrari V6 engine at the rear it took Lancia to four more wins in 5 years, including a 1,2,3 in 1976. This domination was only ended by the Audi Quattro and eventually Group B, but before all wheel drive totally took over Lancia had one last roll of the RWD dice.

Lancia’s initial Group B car was the 037, this was a space framed, 2-seater, RWD, featuring a mid-mounted 2 litre supercharged engine. Whilst the performance was there the car always looked fragile but went on to prove it was a winner with Walter Rohrl in the 1983 Monte. This turned out to be the last 2-wheel drive winner of the WRC Monte Carlo. Lancia needed a 4WD car.

The response was the Lancia Delta S4, a wild space framed, turbo charged and supercharged all-wheel drive monster. Driven by Henri Toivonen the S4 won its first event, the 1985 RAC rally, which was backed up with victory in the 1986 Monte Carlo. Unfortunately, Group B was getting out of control and was banned before the end of the 1986 season, making this the S4’s only Monte Carlo outing.

1985 RAC Rally

With the cancellation of Group B and its replacement with Group A all the teams had less than a year to design, build and develop a competitive Group A car. Out of all the manufactures Lancia was the best placed due to the existence of the Delta HF 4WD which had been revealed at the 1986 Turin motor show. This car had all the ingredients of a winning Group A rally car, 2 litre twin cam turbo charged engine and 4WD. With continuous development the Delta Integrale went on to win 5 of the next 6 Monte Carlo rallies between 1986 and 1992. No other manufacturer has ever had such dominance of the rally.

Since 1992 Lancia has gradually faded into history, until 2026 when Lancia returned the Ypsilon Rally 2 car. Both the “works” entries had problems during the rally, but they were classified as finishers in 13th and 18th place overall and 6th and 9th places in WRC2. Along the way they had a stage win and several 2nd and 3rd places, a good result for a new car with a new team,

It will be interesting to see if the cars develop throughout this season, as next year’s changes to the WRC regulations effectively make the WRC a Rally 2 class, could Lancia be back at the top in Monaco next year?