The Fiat Junior World Team, led by Mirco Baldacci and co-driver Giovanni Bernacchini, finished the 2005 FIA Junior World Rally Championship with another strong performance, finishing in third position in the Rally Catalunya-Costa Daurada, held last weekend. The six points scored in the Spanish round didn't allow the Sanmarinese driver to overtake other Junior challengers in the overall classification though, so Mirco Baldacci climbed up to 26 points, which meant seventh position in the final standings, just behind most of the works/semi-works drivers' backed by the Monster Team Europe (Suzuki) and the Citroen-backed Kronos team.

The Spanish round saw the most fierce battle of the Junior season, due to the battle to claim the championship crown, between Spaniard Dani Sordo (Citroen C2) and the British driver, Guy Wilks (Suzuki Swift). During the first leg, run on Friday 28th October, Mirco Baldacci was able to match the times of the two championship contenders. Indeed, on the second leg, he was even able to overtake them for several stages, following Wilks’ retirement after an accident on SS8, while Dani Sordo was penalised 60 seconds, thanks to an illegal engine change completed by Kronos mechanics on Thursday evening just after the shakedown session.

However, Baldacci and Bernacchini also experienced a retirement on the last stage of the second leg, and this forced them to receive a notional time of 5 minutes added to the Junior category’s winning stage time (due to Superally regulations, which let one return to the rally at the beginning of each leg). The Fiat Punto Super1600 crew thus entered the last leg in third position with a gap of 4 minutes 56 seconds to the provisional leader, Dani Sordo, and a gap to the second driver, Kosti Katajamaki (Suzuki Ignis) of 47.5 seconds. Baldacci tried hard to close the gap, in order to snatch an extremely deserved second place, but the protegè of Marcus Gronholm successfully resisted the attack from the Fiat driver. In fact, Baldacci scored three top-three stage times on the three stages of the final leg, gaining 8.6, 3.6 and 13.5 seconds on the Finn on SS13, SS14 and SS15 respectively, finishing the rally only 21.8 seconds from second position in the category.

The numbers achieved by Baldacci in the last round of the Junior series are exceptionally strong, with one stage victory, four second-best times, six third-best times, and only one fourth-best time, all in a rally where a championship was at stake and there were many drivers looking to prove a point. Such a performance shows that the potential of the Punto S1600 on asphalt is still capable of being compared with the best and newer S1600 models, such as the latest evolutions of the Citroen C2 and Suzuki Swift, although the Fiat team had unofficially confirmed that the season just ended season didn't see substantial evolutions and modifications to what is now the oldest Super1600 model in action in the World Rally Championship.

In fact, Fiat’s entire rally resources are presently focused on the development of the Punto Super 2000, developed on the base of the new Grande Punto. This car has shown solid performances on some special stage tests, when compared with the times achieved by other WRC cars in previous editions.

In the last week, several names have circulated about the future Fiat drivers. In 2006, Fiat programmes should be confirmed in the CIR (Italian Rally Championship) with Paolo Andreucci and a yet-to-be-announced second driver, while a similar programme is in the offing for the Production WRC, where the Punto S2000 could be allowed to run, albeit without taking points for the driver’s championship. Claudio Berro, Fiat’s representative to the FIA, lost the ‘armwrestle’ against David Richards, who was representing the Japanese car makers, taking part in the Production World Rally Championship with modified, but ‘showroom-spec’, Subaru Imprezas and Mitsubishi Lancer Evolutions. Richards was able to convince the rest of the committee to exclude the 'S2000' type cars from scoring points in the series, being very aware that the new car seriously undermines the overall performance of the current Japanese cars.

With regard to the seats available for the assault on the PWRC next year, strong rumours surround Dani Sordo, the new JWRC champion, and Colin McRae’s protegè Kris Meeke, who ended the same series third overall. Several observers and opinion-makers have suggested that the tests run with McRae just over a fortnight ago were part of a more complex operation, which could include the hiring of the Scottish youngster to drive for the Fiat works team in 2006. Meanwhile, after his impressive runs in the final few JWRC events, some chances also remain for Mirco Baldacci. No decision though has yet been taken about the 2006 European Rally Championship, despite the strong overall second position achieved in that series this year by Giandomenico Basso and Mitia Dotta.

by Marco Tenuti & Shant Fabricatorian