Ford M-Sport's Hirvonen won the event on his way to the world title in 2009, but heads to this weekend's 26-stage rally 114 points behind defending champion and standings leader Sebastien Ogier.
Frenchman Ogier has won five of the seven rallies so far this season, with the other two won by his team-mate and Hirvonen's compatriot Jari-Matti Latvala.
Volkswagen have a lock out of the top three positions in the drivers' championship as a result, Latvala trailing Ogier by 50 points with Norwegian Andreas Mikkelsen a further 33 points further back.
A second-place finish in Portugal represents Hirvonen's best showing of the season, and he accepts it will be difficult for him to replicate that performance in front of his home fans.
"Hopefully we can be on the podium, that's definitely what I want to do in my home rally but it’s going to be so tough," Hirvonen said in quotes reported by MaxRally.
"One team has been so dominating even last year as well so it's going to be tough to fight Volkswagen and all three drivers have a chance to win."
Hirvonen has significant experience of the Finnish rally in a career that has spanned 12 years.
And the 33-year-old feels he will need to be aggressive from the start in order to fulfil his ambitions of finishing in the top three.
He added: "I've done the rally many times and one year I thought I would take it a bit easier at the start. I was seven seconds down at the end of the first day and I said for sure I could catch that but I ended up losing by eight seconds."
The 64th edition of the Rally Finland starts on Friday in Lankamaa before finishing on Sunday with a power stage in Ruuhimaki.