The Schio-based team will split its efforts between gravel, world-level asphalt and major domestic commitments, fielding cars and crews across three very different environments. From Val d’Orcia to the Croatian WRC round and on to the Trofeo Maremma, it will be a weekend that measures the depth, organisation and ambition of the Vicenza outfit.
Some weekends carry more weight than others, not merely because of the number of cars on the entry list, but because of the level of the stages on which a team is required to be ready from the outset. The one awaiting MS Munaretto falls fully into that category. The Schio-based squad is preparing for a triple programme, spreading its potential between the gravel roads of the Rally della Val d’Orcia, the asphalt of the Croatia Rally, fourth round of the World Championship, and the roads of the Trofeo Maremma, in a combination of programmes that says a great deal about the solidity and the operational reach of the team.
The opening chapter leads straight to Tuscany, to the Rally della Val d’Orcia, an event that will once again have Radicofani at its centre and will feature a total route of 415.74 kilometres, including 99.15 kilometres of special stages. It is an event that already promises to be selective and technical, within a setting that continues to carry significant weight in the national gravel scene.
Here, MS Munaretto will arrive with both numerical strength and quality, fielding no fewer than seven cars. Benjamin Korhola and Kristian Temonen, car #5 in a Škoda Fabia RS, will be aiming to confirm the strong form already shown in the opening round of the Campionato Italiano Rally Terra, won by the young Finn at Foligno. Louis Constant and Maxime Martini, car #6 in another Škoda Fabia RS, will be looking to build on their opening appearance at Foligno with the clear aim of raising the bar further. Massimo Squarcialupi and Giovanni Squarcialupi, car #9 in a Škoda Fabia RS, arrive encouraged by the positive feelings left by their ninth place at Foligno and determined to push further forward. Luca Hoelbling and Federico Fiorini, car #12 in a Škoda Fabia RS, head into the event in aggressive mood after narrowly missing out on a top ten finish in the opening gravel round. Giovanni Ceccato and Enrico Bracchi, car #19 in a Škoda Fabia RS, are intent on testing themselves further after the mileage gathered in their first outing of the season. Alessandro Taddei and Andrea Gaspari, car #28 in a Škoda Fabia RS, are ready to restart their campaign from the Tuscan event itself. Finally, Michele Griso and Alex Guion, car #77 in a Lancia Ypsilon, are eager to produce a concrete response after the Prealpi. For all of them, with the season beginning to come fully alive in the spring, Val d’Orcia will represent an important step in giving continuity to the work carried out during the opening weeks of the year.
From the heart of Val d’Orcia, the focus then shifts to the international profile of the Croatia Rally, which will start from Rijeka, base its service park at the Grobnik Circuit and finish in Opatija, after 300.28 kilometres of timed asphalt stages. It is an event of very high standing, part of the WRC calendar, bringing with it a completely different technical setting and a level of opposition that needs no introduction.
On the Croatian roads, the colours of the Schio-based team will be carried by Williams Zanotto and Paolo Cargnelutti, competing with car #54 in a Škoda Fabia RS. For the Vicenza driver, it will be an appearance with genuine substance, inside a world-level event that adds weight and visibility to a path built over the years through one-make trophies, steady progression and increasingly significant outings in top-level machinery. What makes the picture even more interesting is the continuity with the recent past, given that Zanotto had already experienced the Croatia Rally alongside the same Cargnelutti, an element that brings a degree of familiarity to what remains a very high-level setting. For MS Munaretto, it will be a prestigious presence on the world stage, in an event whose appeal, visibility and organisational complexity make it a particularly meaningful proving ground.
The picture will then be completed by the Trofeo Maremma, where the Vicenza team will field one further car. Pierangelo Villa and Michael Adam Berni will be on the start line in car #23, a Renault Clio S1600. For Villa, a gentleman driver with long-standing experience, the Maremma event marks another step in a journey that has seen him measure himself in different cars and different contexts, returning to the wheel of the Renault Clio S1600 after his more recent appearances in Rally2 machinery. Once again, the team confirms its determination to operate across different environments, alternating top-level Rally2 programmes with more targeted entries in other categories, while preserving the same technical identity and sporting approach.
Between gravel, asphalt and routes demanding completely different approaches, MS Munaretto heads into this weekend with the awareness of a team that knows full well that, on occasions like these, the difference is made by preparation, structure and the ability to read each event in exactly the right way. The calendar calls, the team responds, once again on multiple fronts and with the very same ambition as ever.
