Forty-nine crews are scheduled to participate in the upcoming Rally Monte Carlo, the opening event of the 2008 World Rally Championship season. The start will be given in Valence on Thursday the 24th of January, with the crossing of the finish line in Monaco on Sunday the 27th.

Of the six teams presently entered in the Constructor's Championship (Ford, Citroën, Subaru, Stobart, Munchi's and Suzuki), only the Munchi's Ford Team will not be present.

Still on the WRC side of things, apart from the official Citroën C4s of Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo, Conrad Rautenbach is looking at participating in every race this year at the wheel of a Citroën Xsara WRC. The Zimbabwean will therefore be ready and willing at the start line.

There will be several Ford Focus cars within Rally Monte Carlo: the Ford team will enter three for Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala and Khalid Al Qassimi, in addition to the cars used by Stobart drivers Henning Solberg, Matthew Wilson, Gigi Galli and François Duval.

Peugeot will also be well represented with Frédéric Romeyer at the wheel of a 206 WRC, while Laurent Carbonaro, Jean-Marie Cuoq and Philippe Roux will be racing with 307 WRCs. François Delecour should be doing the same.

The Subaru team has confirmed the presence of Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson, but not that of Xevi Pons as contract discussions remain to be settled. Suzuki will have its two cars ready for Toni Gardemeister and Per-Gunnar Andersson.

Skoda will have a single car entered under WRC regulations, to be driven by Riccardo Errani.

Rally Monte Carlo will be the only event of the 2008 championship where neither the Production or Junior series will be present.