WRC 2012: A review...(The Good, the bad, & the damn right ugly)

[GigiGalliNo1]

Best of 2012 was Monte Carlo coverage by Eurosport.

[AndyRAC]

Best of 2012 was Monte Carlo coverage by Eurosport.

Weird, I was just thinking the same - especially after all the uncertainty over the filming, etc They did an excellent job; the simulcam is a great bit of kit. The coverage on MotorsTV was definitely a come down; poor sound, poor picture quality, despite the efforts of Colin & Julian.

[Ripplin]

Highlights: Lowlights: The absence of Kris Meeke in a Mini

Yes, that was very sad and unfair to him! Hopefully 2013 will be a much better year for him.

P.S. First post. Great forum! I found this place by looking for news on Ola Floene and the circumstances regarding his odd retirement.

[Mikkaki]

Highlights
Sebastien Loeb. Outstanding
Mads Östberg has shown that he is ready for a factory seat.
Sebastien Ogier in the S2000 Skoda.
PG Andersson's 2 victorys in SWRC with a PROTON that is lightyears from Skoda, Ford and Peugeot S2000.
Latvala has shown that he is the best driver except Loeb. Has shown good pace on tarmac. The crashes came when he i trying to catch Loeb.
Evans in the JWRC. Outstanding and were pure driving.

Lowlights:
Petter Solberg. He just gets worse and worse. Sorry but time for pension
Tanak. He is fast yes, but there are more drivers that could drive fast for a couple of stages then crash.
Atkinson. Just not fast enough sorry.


Best Event
Finland, nothing more to say about that. If you are fastest in Finland i think you are the best.

Worst Event
Wales, just passed by and nobody gives a ****.

Wishes for 2013
Latvala faster than Ogier.
PG Andersson in a developed car. In WRC or WRC2.
Ostberg in Citroen. He will show Hirvonen who is NR1 in the team.
Tanak back in Ford and show that he could finish rallies.

[spiderem]

Good points : rally de France TV coverage... Never watched so much rally in one week end on the TV. Girlfriend was upset, but it was worth it!
Hope we will see more rallies next year with similar coverage.

[Hazza555)]

As much as there were a lot of good things this year, this kinda sums it up for me

[ShiftingGears]

I liked the implementation of longer rallies in recent years, which is something I hope will continue.

I haven't really had a chance to watch any WRC on TV, as it is so poorly advertised I have no idea if it is even broadcast on free-to-air anymore. Except when Solberg's crash made the news, I noticed that the coverage still utilised the in-car cameras looking back at the drivers, which in my opinion have been excruciatingly overused. As far as the commentary goes, I can only speculate that the new commentators are a step up from Paul King.

WRC has really been let down by the television production quality for several years, so the announcement of Red Bull Media House as the promoter has been the best thing about the WRC in 2012, from my perspective. I hope I'm not proven wrong.

[Tanelv]

As far as the commentary goes, I can only speculate that the new commentators are a step up from Paul King.

WRC has really been let down by the television production quality for several years, so the announcement of Red Bull Media House as the promoter has been the best thing about the WRC in 2012, from my perspective. I hope I'm not proven wrong.

I don't know about the others, but I enjoyed Paul King more than the new duo: Colin Clark and Julian Porter. Colin and Julian keep making so many mistakes when reading the text (not only random mistakes, but substantive mistakes) and it seems they haven't prepared at all at times and it feels like they're just two friends randomly chatting about rally.
While on the other hand Paul King seemed to be more proffesional in his commentary. Colin and Julian are great radio reporters, but to me they are not so good on the TV. Maybe I'm the minority here, but I'd like a more proffesional approach.
So thumbs up for Paul King from me.

[rallyfiend]

I don't know about the others, but I enjoyed Paul King more than the new duo: Colin Clark and Julian Porter. Colin and Julian keep making so many mistakes when reading the text (not only random mistakes, but substantive mistakes) and it seems they haven't prepared at all at times and it feels like they're just two friends randomly chatting about rally.
While on the other hand Paul King seemed to be more proffesional in his commentary. Colin and Julian are great radio reporters, but to me they are not so good on the TV. Maybe I'm the minority here, but I'd like a more proffesional approach.
So thumbs up for Paul King from me.

Paul King still does the normal programmes.

Colin and Julian just do Motors.

[Ripplin]

My favorite duo was Paul and Julian (and I hope Carlton Kirby does ERC next year; I like his dry sense of humor). Colin is decent, though I think the Motors broadcasts were greatly improved with the addition of Julian this year. Sure, they make mistakes, but it's part of the fun with those two. Last season with Colin alone was...interesting.