BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team

The team's all-Finish driver line-up will feel comfortable having grown up in such conditions. But keeping their Ford Focus RS World Rally Cars at peak performance in the unrelenting cold requires huge resolve and determination from technicians forced to lie outside in the snow in such extremes.

#3 : Mikko Hirvonen/Jarmo Lehtinen: Hirvonen, second on Rallye Monte Carlo, has five previous starts here to his name and finished third in 2007. The 27-year-old won the championship's last winter rally in Norway in 2007. "Everyone is asking if I feel I'm the favourite," he said. "There are a few possible winners and I'm one of them, but I don't regard myself as the favourite. There's a little pressure, but I felt pressure in Rallye Monte Carlo and had a good result there. This is the first rally that I'm really thinking I have to win if I want to fight for the drivers' title. "I hope the conditions are full winter. If there's a lot of snow and ice then Pirelli's tyres will work well. Reliability will also be important because there is no traditional 30-minute service in the middle of the day, just a 15-minute remote service using only spare parts carried in the car. I don't agree with that because if a car has a minor problem early in the morning then a driver can be stuck with it for the rest of the day. But the Focus is a reliable car so I'm not too concerned," added Hirvonen.

#4 : Jari-Matti Latvala/Miikka Anttila: This is Latvala's fourth Swedish Rally and the 22-year-old is hoping the snow and ice arrives in time. "A proper winter rally is great fun. I've driven many snow rallies and the feeling of driving fast in winter is one that I really enjoy. The conditions are more forgiving and the car spends more time sideways than on a gravel rally, because that style helps to get the car to turn into bends," he said. "It's not so easy when the conditions aren't so good. A lack of snow isn't too much of a problem but if there is no ice and the gravel comes through the surface, then it can rip out the studs from the tyres and destroy them. Where the lack of snow becomes a problem is if a driver needs to use the snowbanks. If you carry too much speed into a bend you can lean into the snow banks to guide the car round the corner. But if they are small and soft, when the rear of the car hits the bank it can drag the front in as well. It's important to keep the front wheels turned away from the bank to avoid that," he explained.

#19 : Khalid Al Qassimi/Michael Orr: Driving a third official Focus RS and making his Swedish debut is Abu Dhabi's Khalid Al Qassimi and co-driver Michael Orr. "It's difficult to think about how I will approach the rally itself. I've only driven on snow and ice for one brief test about a year ago and so have little experience. However, it's clear that it will be completely different to asphalt or gravel," said 35-year-old Al Qassimi. "The right approach will only come from as much mileage on the rally as possible. We'll start at a steady pace to understand the conditions and how the car works in them and build from there. I gather that the driving technique on snow and ice is to keep the wheels spinning so the studs cut into the ice as much as possible, but of course I won't be able to develop that until I arrive for the rally," he added.

Citroen Total World Rally Team

This weekend will see the all-conquering Citroen team of Sebastien Loeb and Daniel Elena start their 100th World Rally Championship event, en route to which they have become the most successful rally crew of all time, taken four world titles, won more events in one season, taken the most consecutive wins, won the German rally six times “no one else has ever won this event“ and set a new record for Monte Carlo Rally wins. Not surprisingly, their start to win ratio, 37 out of 99 or 37 per cent, is also a world record. He has climbed on to the podium, finishing in the top three, in 61 per cent of events entered and completed 85 per cent of events entered.

#1 : Sebastien Loeb/Daniel Elena: "Competing on these extremely fast, icy stages is sheer delight," confirms Sebastien Loeb. "Controlling long, high-speed power-slides, setting up the car for corners and using the snowbanks to stay on line is a great experience. When the studs give good grip, it really is a fantastic rally." Talking on 100 events: "It's a nice round figure, but it's not that important to me," observes Seb. "Our objective will be to try to win, which won't be easy. For one thing, we will start the weekend running first on the road and that can often be a handicap in Sweden. Our rivals will also be out to draw level after the Monte Carlo Rally and I'm expecting a close fight. Sure, it would be nice to celebrate our 100th start with a win but scoring points in both championships will also be important and I will base my pace on the way the rally unfolds"

#2 : Daniel Sordo/Marc Marti: Dani Sordo takes up his team-mate's last point to highlight one of the difficulties inherent in the WRC's annual trip to Sweden: "When the studs bite, you can do what you want with your car and it's tremendous fun. However, if a coating of snow prevents the studs from digging in, it can be more difficult to be precise in your driving. And when you add the extremely high speeds we reach in Sweden into the equation, then this clearly isn't an easy event. It calls for significant experience of this sort of terrain and it's no coincidence that few non-Nordic drivers have won in Karlstad. This will be my third attempt and my objective will be to score points for Citroen."