Rumours that Fiat are gearing up for an all-out FIA World Rally Championship assault, spearheaded by legendary Italian MotoGP star Valentino Rossi, have been lent further credence as development of the prototype 'Super 2000' Fiat Punto races ahead, and that recommended budget requirements are believed to be acceptable to Fiat's senior management.

This year has seen Fiat hitting the rally tracks with a wide ranging factory-back series of programmes. Mirco Baldacci and Luca Cecchettini comprise the two-car FIA Junior World Rally Championship challenge using the Super 1600 Fiat Punto. The programme is directly controlled by N-Technology, the Fiat Auto Division's in-house competitions department, who are also responsible for the Alfa Romeo Racing Team which competes in the FIA World Touring Car Championship and for managing the build and development of the Ferrari 575 GTC 'customer' sportscar which is used in the FIA GT Championship, as well as the Le Mans Endurance Series.

Baldacci, a former Punto JWRC driver was tempted back into the Fiat fold this year after spending a year with the all-conquering factory-supported Suzuki Ignis-running 'Monster Team Europe' where he showed a blistering turn of pace and marked himself down as a star for the future. The Italian youngster is believed to have been offered a lucrative multi-year contract to get him back into the Super 1600 Punto. The year started with an outstanding performance on the opening round of the 2005 FIA JWRC, the Monte Carlo Rally, where he set the highest number of category fastest stage times, while last weekend, on the WRC Acropolis Rally, he got his points tally off to a start by claiming fifth place in the JWRC.

Two other factory-supported programmes are also running this year, both devised with the aim of providing valuable feedback for the on-going development programme, as well as building up the nucleus of a rally team. Two highly experienced Fiat Punto pilots, Giandomenico Basso and Paolo Andreucci, are contesting the FIA European Rally Championship and the CSAI Italian Rally Championship respectively.

Andreucci, the reigning Italian Super 1600 Champion, is dovetailing his programme with development of Fiat's new Super 2000 Punto, a car which is based around the next-generation Punto model due to be unveiled at September's Frankfurt IAA. The all-new B-segment Punto model - codename Project 199 - which will utilise a new platform currently being jointly developed with US car giant GM, is set to be the Italian carmaker's most important model introduction for years and one which will spearhead their recovery programme. As such Fiat's senior management are believed to see it as vital that the new Punto takes to the tracks as soon as possible.

The are pitching the car at the FIA's proposed new 'Super 2000' category which under consideration to replace the incumbent Super 1600, with strict cost-controls in place. Andreucci is carrying out development testing, and project insiders say that the whole programme is well ahead of schedule.
 

In fact the the pace shown up the early prototype - now running - has been very impressive, convincingly beating top-level Group N machines against the clock in back-to-back tests undertaken on different surfaces at Alfa Romeo's Balocco test track. As the FIA World Rally Championship gears up for rule changes aimed at stemming the flow of manufacturers away from the competition, Fiat are keeping all their options firmly open. In fact, comments emitting from the rally development programme personnel exude a confidence that a Super 2000 Punto can be made to be a certain winner.

Into this mix comes motorbike legend Valentino Rossi. As he steams towards his fifth MotoGP World Championship title, Rossi has become one of this decade's greatest sporting icons, and getting him into the new Punto rally car would guarantee unrivalled publicity. The flamboyant Italian is always very close to the Fiat Group and is now believed to be considering his options outside MotoGP, with Fiat's Brand Promotion Manager Lapo Elkann pushing the bike star hard to consider joining the proposed rally programme. Rossi tested a Formula One Ferrari at Fiorano last year, reported impressing the team management with his swift adaptation to an unfamiliar open open-wheel racing car in just a few laps, while at last December's Bologna Motor Show he is quoted as saying "I would like to drive rallies for Fiat after my bike career."

Rossi already has experience of rallying, having taken part in several one-off events, including a short-lived appearance on the 2002 WRC Rally of Great Britain, his competitive stage debut. Last month Fiat rally boss Matilde Tomagnini talked up the Fiat-Rossi rally angle during an interview with Italian weekly magazine Sport Auto Moto. "For me it would be a dream if he tried the Punto 199," she commented, adding: "Who would not want Valentino? The natural outcome is that, if Rossi asked to go into rallying, he would do it with us for certain. I hope to put him in a Punto 199 as soon as possible. I will try to convince him at least to test it."

Fiat's management are now reported to have approved a 20 million euro per annum budget for the proposed Super 2000 programme, allowing the green light to be given for a front line rally assault to be undertaken. Tomagnini is keen to see Super 2000 costs kept down, an issue of growing importance, particularly in light of the planned withdrawals from the WRC by several top manufacturers, and has targeted this figure as the top end of any required budget.

Fiat personnel have already attended the Monte Carlo and Sardinia Rallies this year on a fact finding mission, and it is also rumoured that Fiat have recently approached several highly regarded WRC engineers, lending credence to the theory that advance planning is well underway. Included in these approaches is one to outgoing Mitsubishi Technical Director Mario Fornaris, who left the company after the recent Acropolis Rally. Fornaris is highly respected in rallying circles and he could take over from N-Technology's Chief Engineer Sergio Limone who is reportedly departing at the end of the current season.

Rallying and the Fiat brand name are historically synonymous, and it would seem that a new Super 2000 category Punto could be set to following in the footsteps of legendary predecessors such as the iconic Fiat 131, which won everything there was to win in the rallying arena.