Four-time world champion Juha
Kankkunen would have to be one of the kings of the big return. In a
history-making, illustrious career, the Finn went back to a team three times.
Having started his professional career with Toyota, he departed the then German
based squad only to be back twice more. He joined Lancia in 1987, left, then
came back for three years in a Delta between 1990 and 1992.
Armin Schwarz was another driver
who came, went and came back to Toyota (and Škoda later in his career). Didier
Auriol’s two terms at Toyota were split by the 1996 season when the team was
banned, so maybe that one doesn’t count.
Richard Burns was famously on the
verge of a return to Subaru in 2004 – but don’t forget the Englishman started
his WRC career in an Impreza, then moved to Mitsubishi before heading back to
an Impreza to win his 2001 title.
Frenchman François Delecour was a
Ford man before he went to Peugeot before returning to Ford to drive a Focus in
2001. It was around that time that Petter Solberg left Ford for Subaru before
he went back to an M-Sport-made car for 2012. Mikko Hirvonen’s another M-Sport
star who went back to the British team for another season – in what turned out
to be his final year in the WRC in 2014.
More recently Esapekka Lappi and
Craig Breen have joined the list. Having started his top-line career with Toyota
Gazoo Racing in 2017, Lappi left the Finnish-based team to join Citroën in
2019. The now 32-year-old was back TGR as a part-time driver in 2022, before
switching to Hyundai for this season.
Breen was another returnee to
Hyundai. The Irishman had left in Hyundai for a full-time drive with M-Sport
Ford in the 2022 season, before returning to the German-based Hyundai squad for
a part-time programme in 2023, which was tragically cut short in April.
See… nothing new in going home.
Finland
Italy
Hungary