A representative in the World Rally Championship had been missing for some time, awaited, longed for and now finally found with the announcement of Roberto Daprà as driver of ACI Team Italia in the 2024 FIA World Rally Championship-2.
The rise of the twenty-two-year-old from Trentino continues unabated and, after concluding his second season in the European Championship with the victory of the RC4 title and as Junior vice-champion, he is preparing to debut in the cadet category of the world championship series, again with the colors of the national team.
“A daydream,” explains Daprà thinking about his 2024 programme, which will begin with the start of the WRC in the first classic stage of the Rallye Monte-Carlo, expected from 25 to 28 January. The commitment includes participation in 7 stages of the calendar, as indicated in the WRC2 regulations, at the wheel of the Skoda Fabia Evo Rally2 managed by Delta Rally, with Pirelli tyres, with the support of Pintarally Motorsport. Alongside Roberto Daprà there will always be navigator Luca Guglielmetti, with him on the right seat since his participation in the Italian Rally Junior Championship in 2021 until today.
Photo by: ACI Sport
Roberto Daprà and Luca Guglielmetti, ACI Team Italia
“I can't wait to start this new adventure – says Daprà – for which I want to thank the ACI, without which I wouldn't be able to race at this level and perhaps I would find myself only thinking about work. Always with Luca at my side, we will start this season from Monte-Carlo with great enthusiasm. The experience in the European Championship was very useful, it allowed us to make a leap in quality and to learn a lot.”
“Now the bar will be raised again, but we have good sensations. I must admit that it went very well in Monza, in my debut on a Rally2. I found an excellent feeling straight away, it's a great car. As usual, the goal it will be to do well race by race, only in this way will we be able to build and achieve new goals.”
Meanwhile, the end of the current season has already offered Daprà the opportunity to make his four-wheel drive racing debut at the Monza Rally, the last stage of the Italian Absolute Rally Championship and Italian Land Rally Championship held last December on a Skoda, with excellent results (fourth place overall before retiring due to technical problems).
The boy born in April 2001, raised in Roveré della Luna, a town in the province of Trento, began his rally career in 2019 with fifth place in the R2B class at the Rallye San Martino di Castrozza, valid for the then Italian Championship WRC. The following year the moment arrived for Daprà to debut in the Italian Absolute Rally Championship in the Two Wheel Drive category.
Then in 2021 he began to be part of the Youth Project of the Automobile Club of Italy as a crew of ACI Team Italia within the Absolute Italian Rally Junior Championship, in which he fought all the way for the title, thanks to a victory and four podiums. In 2022 he made the leap to the FIA European Rally Championship, in the Junior category, as standard bearer for the national team.
On his debut in the European series he finished on the podium at the Roma Capitale Rally and at the RACC Catalunya Rally, as well as third place in the RC4 class at the Monte-Carlo Rally. Also in 2022 he was part of the Italian expedition to the FIA Motorsport Games in France, in Marseille, where he won a gold medal in the RC4 category which was decisive for Italy's final victory.
The last season was therefore crowned with victory in ERC4 and second place in ERC Junior. In 2023 the Daprà-Guglielmetti duo won the ERC4 classification at the Rally de Fafe, at the Rally di Roma Capitale and also finished on the podium at the Barum Czech Rally Zlìn and at the Rally Hungary.
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