While Rossetti comfortably clinched the ERC crown last year, his former Scorpion team mate Giandomenico Basso won the series in 2009, meaning that the Abarth brand will be chasing a third consecutive title and if the latter's championship win in 2006 is also counted in the win-laden Grande Punto S2000 machine will be looking for its fourth ERC victory in its six year rally career.

Collecting three consecutive ERC titles would emulate the achievement of the dazzling Lancia Stratos (1976-79) and the equally successful Lancia 037 Rally (1983-85) although still leaving the pretty Scorpion S2000 machine still well adrift of the legendary Lancia Delta which picked up the baton handed over by the 037 Rally to scorch to six consecutive ERC titles (1986-91) and make it an unprecedented nine in a row for Abarth's sister Fiat Group Automobiles brand.

The important news comes from Rossetti's management company, United Business, and means that the highly experienced Italian rally star will in fact be chasing a hat trick of ERC titles as he also won the crown three years ago at the wheel of a Peugeot 207 S2000. The confirmation comes late in the day as – just like last year – Rossetti has had to hunt for a budget until the last minute to fund his private entry on the ERC. "Rox" is set for a very busy season on the special stages as he will also be returning to the Italian Rally Championship (CIR) to drive a factory-supported Grande Punto Abarth in a bid to improve on the runners-up spot he clinched in last year's series.

The 2011 FIA European Rally Championship title chase was due to kick off in almost exactly a fortnight's time with the ELPA Rally in Greece, however this event has now been cancelled and instead Rossetti will fire up the Abarth Grande Punto S2000 in anger for the first time this year on home soil on the Rally 1000 Miglia which takes place from 14-16 April (and also counts towards the CIR) before heading to Croatia and then the Bosporus in Turkey.

With the 2011 regulations – which divide the events in 2 groups of 6, with 4 results counting for each group – the cancellation of ELPA Rally makes the result of the first three events even more important, as the Greek event becomes the first (compulsory) of the two events to be discarded in the first half of the calendar. The deadline of 31 May as the last possible day to register for the series is another crucial element: a good start will mean discouraging the arrival of other competitors. And Croatia is scheduled right around 20 May.

Meanwhile, as well as defending champion Rossetti, 20 other drivers have so far registered for the ERC this year. As ever, and particularly as the first round takes place in Italy and the second encounter, the Croatia Rally, is not far removed geographically, around half of the pilots will hold an Italian passport. These are led out by Corrado Fontana and Piero Longhi, who will both drive the new MINI, as well as Alessandro Perico, Luigi Fontana and Luca Betti, the trio all behind the wheel of the tried-and-tested Peugeot 207 S2000. Meanwhile Renato Travaglia and Giandomenico Basso (who has just left the factory Abarth team after a long and rewarding spell including two ERC titles in 2006 and 2009) are both former champions who haven't announced their mounts as yet, but will also be leading candidates to challenge Rossetti for overall title honours.

Ranged against the competitive Italian contingent will be the Ford Fiesta S2000s of Polish duo Maciej Oleksowicz and Michal Solowow, the Skoda Fabia S2000 of Czech Antonín Tlusťák and the Peugeot 207 S2000 of Bulgarian Dimitar Iliev. The entry list, one of the most competitive seen on the ERC in recent years, will be completed by Szymon Ruta, Maciej Rzeznik, Petar Gyoshev, Mathieu Biasion, Francesco Parli and Cyril Vosahlo. Further down the classification two more Italians, Stefano Albertini (Renault Megane N4) and Giovanni Vergnano (Abarth 500 R3T), will go head-to-head for the two-wheel drive championship title. The will however face stiff competition from Slovenian driver Rok Turk (Citroen DS3 R).

2011 FIA European Rally Championship Calendar