Reigning European and Italian Rally Champion Luca Rossetti has officially signed for the factory Abarth team, it was announced today. The 31-year-old Italian driver will begin his career with the Italian marque as part of a four-car entry on next month’s Rallye Monte Carlo.

Rossetti, who made his rallying debut in 1998, has been in sensational form this year at the wheel of a Racing Lions Peugeot 207 S2000, and early in the season he in fact led at the same time the drivers' points table in the Italian, European and Intercontinental Rally Championships.

However, with his limited budget focused on the Italian series, he dropped away from his participation in the IRC, leaving him clear to comfortably wrap up the Italian Rally Championship which was his focus, as well as claiming the prestigious European crown despite missing several events. Despite missing a number of IRC events, Rossetti was placed fourth in the final points standings and took two overall victories (Istanbul and Portugal), as well as three other podium finishes in the Peugeot 207.

With regular co-driver Matteo Chiarcossi alongside as usual next year, Rossetti will line up with fellow Italians Giandomenico Basso and Umberto Scandola, as well as the rapid Finnish youngster Anton Alén, when the 77th Monte Carlo Rally gets underway on January 21, 2009. The most famous of all rallies worldwide, the Rallye Monte Carlo has dropped its traditional place on the fading FIA World Rally Championship calendar to join the IRC for next year, providing Abarth with a perfect opportunity to once again write its name into rallying's history books, although the quartet of factory-run Grande Punto Abarth S2000s will face tough opposition from the Peugeot and Skoda squads.

The four Abarth drivers will debut a new ‘Evo’ version of the Grande Punto Abarth S2000 in Monte Carlo, which features a number of improvements and revisions, the most significant of which is a switch from the Sadev-supplied control transmission to an alternative unit supplied by X-Trac. The new car, which has been out testing this month, will be homologated by the FIA on January 1, in time for its debut on the Monte.

Following the conclusion of the Monte Carlo Rally, 31-year-old Rossetti will then switch his focus to winning the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) and the reigning champion will be attempting to make it back-to-back titles. Young Abarth protégé Umberto Scandola will provide support in a two-car factory-supported challenge on the CIR, while Basso and Alén will concentrate on claiming the IRC crown. Rossetti, who contested five WRC events in 2004-05, and Scandola will reappear in the 12-round IRC for the Sanremo Rally as the famous Italian event counts for the CIR as well as the IRC, although Rossetti is also widely expected to make selected appearances on other IRC events during 2009.