After twenty-three years in Sardinia, the Italian round of the 2027 WRC World Rally Championship will be held in Rome. Today, the FIA and WRC Promoter officially announced next season's calendar, and in addition to the new rounds in the USA and Scotland, the most notable change is the change of location for the Italian round, scheduled for July 8-11, 2027.
The relocation of the World Rally Championship round had been mooted for some time, and the ambitions of the Rally di Roma Capitale, already a fixture of the Italian and European Championships, were well known. But the 2026 edition of the Rally Italia Sardegna, held last week with headquarters in Alghero, seemed to have tipped the balance back toward the gravel roads of Sardinia. The routes, the views, the last-second battles, the organization, and the huge crowds, combined with the constant presence and discussions with the Sardinia Region, which increased funding and extended support until 2030, seemed to have changed the balance, and over the weekend in Alghero, everyone was looking to the future with optimism. The FIA and the Promoter postponed the release of the new calendar by a few days, until today, and in the end, the sirens of Rome prevailed, and the World Rally Championship left the gravel roads of Sardinia and crossed the Tyrrhenian Sea to arrive in the capital on the asphalt of Lazio.
However, the success and high quality standards of the 23rd Rally Italia Sardegna have not gone unnoticed, and in a statement issued this afternoon, the Automobile Club d'Italia announced that, "given the excellent result in Sardinia, ACI, the Italian motorsport federation, announces that it is working towards the concrete goal of developing, as early as 2028, a Rally d'Italia capable of combining, in a single event, the island's iconic dirt roads with the majesty of the Colosseum."
The decision to move the World Championships, a deeply rooted event in the region and capable of generating revenues of nearly €90 million, to the Italian mainland will cause economic damage to Sardinia and deprive it of a showcase that, even last weekend at the 2026 edition of the RIS, has allowed it to gain visibility in 72 countries around the world.