What do you think of the current Group A cars?“The competition car regulations have completely changed the nature of rally sport. The cars are now monsters which are too expensive, too far away from contact with production cars, with technical challenges which are quite different. We cannot change the style of rallying in 1992, but we should be pushing for changes in the future. "To participate in rallying as we know it nowadays, you have to ask for annual budgets of 50/60 million dollars, and you cannot ask that from constructors. Then there are the technical regulations – with engines which can produce 500bhp which must be fitted with restrictors that contain this power to 300bhp, you are involved in very expensive electronic research to gain the best advantage. It is all so wasteful.”
And the use of turbochargers? “This is an old system in engine design. Turbos are principally used in Italy to reduce taxes, by artificially keeping the size of the basic engine smaller on road cars! If we must keep down to 250bhp we should have 2-litre normally aspirated engines. Actually 2.5 litre is a sensible limit so everyone who wants can be active in rally sport. "Another problem is that there is now no justification in rally sport to put feedback into the research for road cars. The only reason for competing in rally sport as it is, is advertising. At least in Formula 1 they are developing atmospheric engines, we are still stuck with turbochargers. All these things Lancia has to consider before they can decide if they are going to come back officially to rally sport.”