Nikolay Gryazin in his Volkwagen Polo R5

Movisport is a rally team and marketing agency based in

Reggio Emilia Reggio nell'Emilia ( egl, Rèz; la, Regium Lepidi), usually referred to as Reggio Emilia, or simply Reggio by its inhabitants, and known until 1861 as Reggio di Lombardia, is a city in northern Italy, in the Emilia-Romagna region. It has abou ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

. The rally team, ''Scuderia Campione Movisport'' competes in the Italian national championship, the

European Rally Championship The European Rally Championship (officially FIA European Rally Championship) is an rallying, automobile rally competition held annually on the European continent and organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The champions ...

and the

World Rally Championship The World Rally Championship (abbreviated as WRC) is the highest level of global competition in the motorsport discipline of rallying, owned and governed by the FIA. There are separate championships for drivers, co-drivers, manufacturers and t ...

(WRC), and in 2021, won the Teams championship title of the support series,

WRC2 The FIA WRC2 (previously also known as World Rally Championship 2 and WRC 2), is a support championship of the World Rally Championship. The calendar consists of the same rallies and stages as the main class and crews usually compete immediately ...

. The marketing agency provides advertising and promotion services linking brands with racing drivers and teams. The rally team's accomplishments therefore include those of the drivers and teams the marketing agency has worked with.

History

The team was founded in 1999 by Italian Zelindo Melegari primarily for his own rally driving purposes but other drivers were soon to join him in the team.

Giandomenico Basso Giandomenico Basso (born 15 September 1973, in Montebelluna) is an Italian rally driver. Rally career After competing in karting from 1981, Basso has been rallying since 1994. Basso has driven Fiats throughout his rallying career. He made his Wor ...

was driving for Movisport as early as 2001 on occasion and, as an agency partner in 2006, he won both the

and

Intercontinental Rally Challenge The Intercontinental Rally Challenge was an FIA-sanctioned rallying series organised by SRW Events and Eurosport Events, and aimed to "give new opportunities to young or amateur rally drivers competing in recognised regional and international ral ...

, followed up in 2009 with another ERC win and the Italian National championship in 2016. In 2018 Nikolay Gryazin won ERC Junior title whilst a partner of the agency but never entered in a rally by the team. In 2020, Movisport claimed to be the Italian Rally Champions winning team for the sixth year in a row, although it's not clear from results what and how they achieved this.

WRC2

Their WRC2 Teams' Championship win in 2021 was a result of direct entries under the Movisport name, utilising the services of drivers Nikolay Gryazin,

Esapekka Lappi Esapekka Lappi (born 17 January 1991) is a Finnish rally driver. He is the 2012 Finnish Rally Champion, 2014 European Rally Champion and the 2016 WRC-2 Champion. Career 2012 Lappi won the 2012 Finnish Rally Championship with Ford Fiesta S200 ...

Teemu Suninen Teemu Suninen (born February 1, 1994) is a Finnish rally driver. Suninen was driving for Malcolm Wilson's M-Sport WRT in WRC between 2017 and 2021. His manager is Timo Jouhki. Rally career Suninen won the WRC-3 class in the 2014 Rally Finl ...

, Erik Cais and

Enrico Brazzoli Enrico is both an Italian masculine given name and a surname, Enrico means homeowner, or king, derived from ''Heinrich'' of Germanic origin. It is also a given name in Ladino. Equivalents in other languages are Henry (English), Henri (French), Enr ...

. Not loyal to any one manufacturer, the team used four models from three makes across the season:

Škoda Fabia R5 The Škoda Fabia R5 is a rally car built by Škoda Motorsport. It is based upon the Škoda Fabia road car and is built to R5 regulations. It made its competition début in 2015 as a successor to the Škoda Fabia S2000. The car proved to be very ...

, Škoda Fabia Rally2 evo,

Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 The Volkswagen Polo GTI R5 is a rally car built by Volkswagen Motorsport and based upon the Volkswagen Polo road car. It is built to R5 regulations and is a successor to the Volkswagen Polo R WRC. The Polo GTI R5 made its competitive début at th ...

and

Ford Fiesta Rally2 The Ford Fiesta Rally2 (formerly known as Ford Fiesta R5 Mk. II) is a rally car developed and built by M-Sport World Rally Team, M-Sport to comply with Group Rally2 regulations. It is based upon the Ford Fiesta road car and made its debut in 2020. ...

. The WRC2 rules in 2021 insisted drivers must be entered by a team. In reality Gryazin owns and ran his own Volkswagen Polo, and Cais' team provided their Fiesta, obscuring the distinction between Movisport being the entrant or an entry vehicle for independent runners. Although operating in a different fashion, Movisport beat manufacturer teams from

M-Sport M-Sport is an auto racing team and motorsport engineering company headquartered at Dovenby Hall near Cockermouth, Cumbria, England, United Kingdom. Formed in 1979 by the World Rally Championship driver Malcolm Wilson, and originally known as ...

and

Hyundai Hyundai is a South Korean industrial conglomerate ("chaebol"), which was restructured into the following groups: * Hyundai Group, parts of the former conglomerate which have not been divested ** Hyundai Mobis, Korean car parts company ** Hyundai ...

, and also the reigning champions

Toksport Toksport World Rally Team is a motorsport preparation and race team based at the Nürburgring in Quiddelbach, Germany. The team has prepared cars for, and entered events in 26 motorsports championship around the globe and has won notable FIA ch ...

References

External links

* * {{in lang, en, it 1999 establishments in Italy European Rally Championship teams Auto racing teams in Italy World Rally Championship teams Auto racing teams established in 1999