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

[ShiftingGears]

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.

That is unfortunate. I would also prefer professional commentary, but King commentating on onboard footage as if it were live was (is?) excruciating. It did not improve the broadcast.

[GigiGalliNo1]

I'm still surprised people don't know how to torrent or download the days reviews online! It's even put on YouTube with each days highlights! Not that hard.

Julian and Colin don't read a script! It's all done once and recorded once! Pain in the butt but Paul Kings is scripted and he has all day to write it up!

[Federov]

I'm in the US so YouTube really has been a saving grace and allowed me to watch the past two years start to finish -- with mostly good quality. I downloaded before I found out they were on YT though.

Paul King is my guy; although it seems I get a lot of Julian and Colin during my viewings.

Three other things:
1. Good job Craig Breen!

2. Glad Denis Giraudet is recovering well and can get back to work soon -- although Novikov and Ilka were a pretty good pair and might stay that way.

3. I still don't know who I want at Citroen between Mads and Dani... and neither do they apparently! lol
Mads was really on it most of 2012 but it seemed like Sordo was fighting his car the entire season as well. The car doesn't make the driver, but it sure helps.

[Ripplin]

^If you or anyone else wants to know where to torrent the rallies, there are places available... They can't be mentioned in threads, but PMs would be ok.

[Viking]

Power stage points this year

Loeb 19 extra points this year.
Solberg 15
Latvala 14
Hirvonen 13

I think the power stage is a good thing and this year it was decisive on who got the "bronce medal" between Latvala and Østberg.

[tommeke_B]

The power stage would be a good thing if they are all proper stages, like in Finland or Portugal (if I recall correctly). 3 extra points for a 4km stage like Circus Maximus is just a joke...

[Viking]

The power stage would be a good thing if they are all proper stages, like in Finland or Portugal (if I recall correctly). 3 extra points for a 4km stage like Circus Maximus is just a joke...

Your wish will be the rule in 2013

[Allyc85]

Ok my random thoughts on 2012...

Good

Sebastien Loeb. Gave all the other drivers a glimmer of hope with mistakes in Sweden and Portugal before smashing them into the weeds for the rest of the year. Stunning!

Mads Ostberg. Matured a lot this year and put in many performances worthy of a top drive. To finish 4th with only a few days testing and over 2 less events is a brilliant perfomance!

Sebastien Ogier: Drove the bollocks off of that S2000 Skoda and his fastest stage time is pretty legendary.

First trip to the Acropolis: Such a stunning event where myself, Mrjan and J4amie got to see so many stages and some epic driving. On the second running of Thiva was where I took my favourite shot of the year...


WRC Greece The Acropolis - Day 1 by Alastair Cummins, on Flickr

Nasser Al-ttiyah. His stage times are slow, but the man is just so spectacular to watch!

Novikov, driving on in the McRae spirit, with the car in many pieces

Redbull Media House coming in as promotors. If they can get downhill mountain biking through a hay field into the public domain then there is hope for the WRC yet.

Bad

The complete farce with the promotor and TV issues, plus the way the FIA treat the fans like ****, not giving them any clue as to what is going on.

While I appreciate Motors TV sticking by the championship, some of the coverage was beyond amateurish at times. Blatent mistakes by the commentators, sound of of sync and the picture nearly being B&W over the last couple rounds isnt good enough and I would be ashamed to put my name to it.

Ford constantly throwing it away and making it even easier for Citreon. The drivers had far too many crashes, and the tactics have been baffling at times!

The whole Mini farce. Just a complete mess which is so sad as the car obviously has so much potential after being developed on little money.

Yet still after all of the above I still love the WRC and cant wait for 2013 and the start of a new era...I hope

[tenpm]

This season was the first that I've watched properly since 2005 or so. Well, a lot has changed in these years!
Solberg was at the peak of his career then, and even after all these years I still had some lingering loyalty for him as a born and bred Subaru fan. I was saddened to see that he's obviously not at his best anymore. I always preferred his aggressive approach over Loeb's, but his driving was riddled with errors. "To finish first, first you have to finish" indeed.
But I did enjoy this year's rallies, and I'm looking forward to next year (and beyond). Now that Loeb is not going to be there to set the standard, I wonder who is going to step up.

[Ripplin]

If by some miracle the Polo is a great car from beginning to end, next year could be huge for VW. They have the talent to potentially win every round! (in a perfect VW universe, haha)