£1million bill forces Wilks off the road

Guy Wilks is still hunting the £1million he needs to attack the global challenge. A few years ago the current UK champion's talent would have seen him in a good team, but the world series is still in recovery after mismanagement and blunders.

Wilks: has no team

There are just four factory teams where there used to be seven and each has only two cars instead of three. That means the remaining teams can pick and choose drivers and some contenders need sponsors to buy their way in.

That is easy in some countries but not the UK, where rallying has lost its superstars, Colin McRae and Richard Burns.

Wilks, 27, said: "We'll definitely miss the first four rallies, even if it all comes off. It's got to be a £1m deal. I want to be in a top car. It's just not cost-effective in time, money and effort otherwise.

"I could match Ford's new star Jari-Matti Latvala in the past and I know I still can be as fast as him. It's totally frustrating having to keep knocking on doors. You can only do it for so long but it's the market today. Others can afford to offer teams a free drive or pay. You can't go on chasing a dream for ever."

Others are living that dream. Mikko Hirvonen is promoted to No 1 in the main Ford team following the retirement of the great Marcus Gronholm, while 22-year-old Latvala is the second driver. Subaru and Citroen stick with their 2007 line-ups: Petter Solberg and Chris Atkinson and world champion Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo respectively.

Loeb, searching for his fifth successive world title, is relishing the testing conditions of driving through the French Alps.

The rally winds from Valence, in south-east France, to the glitzy principality here on a mixture of dry or wet asphalt, ice and snow.

Frenchman Loeb said: 'I'm dreaming of a white Monte Carlo with real wintry conditions. Last year it was particularly dry but it should be fun if we get snow and ice this time around.'

The second Eddie Stobart-backed Ford outfit is led by charismatic Italian Gigi Galli, returning after two years on the sidelines.

Suzuki are the new team in the top class with an experienced Finn in Toni Gardemeister and a young Swede, Per-Gunnar Andersson.

One Briton still contesting the entire series is Matt Wilson, son of Ford boss Malcolm. He is 21 two days after the rally here and, still in the middle of a five-year plan devised by his father, is getting quicker all the time. He finished 2007 on a high.

The Monte remains rallying's iconic event despite attracting only 49 entries — a fraction of the numbers it once saw.

It is the first of 15 rounds, with one new event this year, Jordan, in April and December's Rally GB as the finale when Loeb is expected to be crowned world champion again.