Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Motorsport

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Contents 1 Project Template peer review 2 Motorbikes 2.1 Speedway 3 Ideas 4 Indy 500 driver up for deletion 5 propose new "child project" 6 Formula Three Euroseries 7 AfD on Ollie Silva 8 Use of project banner 9 Category: Unassessed motorsport articles 10 Infobox templates for drivers and teams 10.1 Championships 10.2 Drivers 10.3 Formulae 11 template:Racing car 12 Automatically adding up article ratings 13 Mario Andretti 14 New task page 15 Formula BMW 16 Results tables for drivers and teams 17 First GA rating for WP:Motorsport 18 WikiProject Australian Motorsport 19 More Mario Andretti 20 Assessment Page on WPMotorsport 21 Assessments 22 Changes in Templates 23 Jyrki vs. JJ 24 Drivers with multiple infoboxes 25 Category rename? 26 Sport governing body 27 A1 GP WikiProject 27.1 Sub-page for A1GP and other subjects

[edit] Project Template peer review

I have created a project template that may be suitable for highlighting relevant articles and/or projects. If you think this is a useful addition, or otherwise, please comment here. Thanks. Adrian M. H. 17:32, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Is this template for marking motorized racing articles that fall outside the other WikiProjects, such as Baja 1000, CORR, American Speed Association, Mike Eddy, etc.? Royalbroil ^T : C 18:41, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

No. This project was created to bring together the existing projects - British Motorsport, F1, WRC, and so on - that are listed on this project's main page. As such, this template is primarily about identifying the new status of those projects as siblings of this new project and perhaps also to mark articles that warrant special attention for reasons of consistency or cross-topic relevance, such as drivers or teams that have had significant involvement in more than one of those projects' areas. You may like to consider suggesting or initiating a new project that encompasses those niche disciplines that are not included in existing projects and/or are not big enough to support a dedicated project of their own. Adrian M. H. 20:41, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

Ok. Did I go too far by creating a userbox and a member enrollment subpage? Royalbroil ^T : C 21:47, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

No, quite the opposite in my opinion. I expect we'll form a member list that shows the members for each sub-project in due course, and the userbox is a logical addition. Adrian M. H. 22:36, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

We could create links to the member's subpage or section in the child WikiProjects, and let people who are not members of child WikiProjects sign up here. Royalbroil ^T : C 00:34, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Motorbikes

Should we include motorcycle racing? The definition of motorsports seems to include motorcycle racing, and also there is a vast number of ex-motorcycle racers who raced in F1. Some have two infoboxes - one for bikes and for F1 - and it looks cluttered. Readro 12:57, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

• Strong Yes - it has a motor and is raced. Ricky Carmichael is looking at switching to NASCAR. What are the relevant WikiProject(s)? Royalbroil ^T : C 14:21, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

WikiProject Grand Prix motorcycle racing --Skully Collins ^Edits 14:56, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

• Yes as per Royalbroil Jsydave 23:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Speedway

Is there scope within this umbrella project for linking in series of articles not otherwise linked to a project of their own. I'm thinking particularly of the Speedway Grand Prix articles I have worked on. I don't believe they justify a project of their own (although they are perhaps on a similar scale to A1 Grand Prix) but feel they could be relevant to this WP. Jsydave 23:47, 28 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ideas

Sorry, but when something new happens I just like to get my ideas in ASAP. Anyway, here is what I thought:

• Collaberations (sp?)
• Portal?
• Some Projects are still missing...V8 Supercars?
• The template could also be "revamped" as it were. I've noticed on a number of WP Templates it has a rating system, should we have that as well?

Anyway, just some ideas.--Skully Collins ^Edits 13:13, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

No opinion (spelled Collaborations), portal - Weak yes, V8 Supercars - Strong Yes, Revamp Template - Yes. I found the wording on the talk page template to be confusing especially the intended meaning of the word "article." I'm sure it could be worded more clearly if we all put our heads together. A rating system should be used for articles on cross-discipline motor racers, concepts, and objects such as Template (racing), SAFER barrier, etc. Royalbroil ^T : C 14:21, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Rating system now in place. To use it, enter something like this -

{{WikiProject Motorsport|class=A}}

where you replace A with whatever class the article fits into. Readro 20:02, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Re: template wording – Yes, it could it be changed, as what you see now is only a first attempt. We would need to decide where to use it, though, as that will affect the wording. My initial thoughts were to use it on the talk pages of its sub-projects to those sub-projects to this new parent project.

I would suggest two templates: one for the sub-projects and one for relevant articles (particularly those with cross-project relevance, as mentioned above).

Re: portal idea – Sounds like a potentially good idea, depending on the details. Adrian M. H. 17:24, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

See Portal:Formula One for a model. It rather relies on people keeping it up to date, though. 4u1e 21:01, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

V8 Supercars is part of WikiProject Australia, rather than any motorsport project, so I don't think it should be included at this time. I would like to see a WikiProject Touring Cars, as the DTM and WTCC articles need improvement and expansion, so the Supercars article would be included in that. If you think this would be a good idea, comment here. Adrian M. H. 17:29, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

Agree: DTM, WTCC, BTCC and V8's could all be included. Alexj2002 15:29, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

We could create a touring car project at some point later this year, when our work on existing projects is quieter. Adrian M. H. 15:55, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

V8 Supercars is now covered by WikiProject Australian motorsport (which I have added as a child WikiProject of this one). DH85868993 09:59, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Indy 500 driver up for deletion

Willard Prentiss, who came 13th in the 1933 Indy 500, is currently up for deletion at Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Willard Prentiss. If his article gets deleted then it could have huge implications on the project. There seem to be several people who consider that he is not notable enough, so it would be nice if more people could get involved with the discussion so that we can formulate a consensus for notability in motorsport. Readro 20:23, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

I fully agree that this article must be kept. I have added my support. Adrian M. H. 21:16, 24 December 2006 (UTC)

The result of the debate was keep. Alexj2002 15:29, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] propose new "child project"

Anyone else interested in a Drag Racing project? I have seen interest from user:Ren0 and obviously myself. I participate mostly in street legal classes at local dragstrips in California and Texas, and I know very little about big NHRA classes/events (nitro funny cars and stuff you see on TV), so I will need help there. As for what I already have done: I have an extensive "to do" list that I am already working on, I have created a Dragstrip infobox template (purposed) while working on Los Angeles County Raceway. The scope of this project would be to create/expand information pertaining to drag racing, specifically: Drag strips, drag racing terminology, drag racing technology, drag racing events/sanctioning bodies, drag racing technique/common practices, professional drag racing teams, professional drag racing drivers. BMan1113VR 03:34, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

Certainly a worthwhile project for those who have specialist knowledge in the field (or strip?!) I can't include myself in that category, though. I would recommend posting the same question on the talk pages of some of the more notable drag racing articles (John Force, say) to catch the eye of people who don't know about this parent project yet. Adrian M. H. 15:48, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I thought of that, but have been a little pressed for time this week. I can add info and pictures of tracks and street car info, but I am clueless when it comes to the drag racing you see on ESPN.BMan1113VR 06:13, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Formula Three Euroseries

I want to rate the above article, but as I have been the primary contributor, I would prefer to get some other opinions on it. Any thoughts? Adrian M. H. 16:22, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

I've rated it as a B-Class article as it is definitely higher than Start-Class, but can't be any higher because it is not a GA. Readro 17:53, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

What would get it to GA? There is nothing else that could be added to it, really. Adrian M. H. 18:04, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

The assessment criteria says it has to go through the GA nomination process, so that's why I didn't make it GA-Class. If it passes and gets GA status, then its rating can go up. Readro 18:10, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

While I think I could probably see the difference between 'GA', 'A' and 'FA' versions of an article, it gets difficult to define that difference in words. It's the same thing, only more so! Regarding the F3 article, good work Adrian. If you're interested in a third party view, I suspect that if you put it up for GA you might get the following comments:

• Breadth. In relative terms there is very little coverage pre-2000s. There are two arguments to counter that, one is that GA doesn't require complete comprehensiveness, the other is that the article is entitled F3 Euroseries, which I think strictly refers only to this incarnation of the series, not the previous versions. Nonetheless, it might become a sticking point.
• References. There is a strong preference for 'proper' footnotes at all levels of assessment (see Brabham for an extreme example! I'm not suggesting that you would go to that degree for this article). If I'm remembering correctly, it's not a strict requirement to use footnotes, so your current embedded links might be OK. Some reviewers will probably also feel that there aren't enough references in the text - they will probably be making that assessment on the same (unfair) judgement that I have just made by simply counting refs and noting that there aren't any in some paragraphs. That can be countered by either pointing out that the given refs adequately cover all the material (if such is the case) or by increasing the number of refs used.
• Finally, some might feel that the article isn't understandable enough for someone new to the topic - that tends to come up for most of 'my' articles, anyway (or maybe that's just me!)

Hope that is of some use. Cheers 4u1e 16:51, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the comments. The period prior to 2003 is restricted to background info because the Euroseries didn't exist before then. I was in two minds whether to even give that background, but I felt that it needed the context, particularly as there is no other Wiki content about the history of the European F3 Championship and European Cup as they were known. What are your thoughts about that, bearing in mind that there is not really enough information to support a separate article?
The references do indeed (in most instances) encompass every bit of info that comes after the previous ref, if you see what I mean. See the technical regs paragraphs, for example. I was wary of duplicating ref links, as I would imagine that it would be poor form.
I tried to make the article clear to non-experts, without falling into the trap of being patronising. I might test it on a few lay guinea-pigs and see if they comprehend it. Perhaps it needs a few more well-placed wiki-links for technical terms. Thanks for the input. - Adrian M. H. 18:49, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I think your logic in restricting the article to the Euroseries is sound - although much more history on its predecessors could be dug up, the material you have fits the article as defined. I think you're right to give some history - just be prepared to justify your reasoning!

Nothing technically wrong with your approach to the refs then - but it will likely set alarm bells ringing, so again, be prepared to explain (or convert to footnotes, which will (perhaps for no very good reason!) make reviewers happier).

The non-expert thing wasn't based on anything in particular I saw in the article, just that it tends to be a common comment. A good approach is to get a non-expert to copyedit it, as this can kill two birds with one stone - a double check on the writing and a comprehension check. Why not put it for Good Article Review and see what happens? 4u1e 22:38, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for your reply, 4u1e. I think I'll nominate it for a review when I've tweaked it a bit more. I've made a lot of minor changes to the text tonight, but I would like to convert it to the footnotes layout, and maybe re-write the background section as well, to make it more about the creation of those early series and less about their champions. Adrian M. H. 22:46, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

(deindent)I never heard of the series, so I thought I could be a "new to the topic" reviewer with some racing technical knowledge, so I copyedited the article. I hope you don't mind. Feel free to revert any U.S. bias that I have introduced into the article. I thought it would be good for its "world view" too. I have left a few commented out thoughts. Overall I think the article is good, but a few sections need some work to make them read better. I tried to fix/improve some of them. A few things that I found confusing:

• "For Dallara customers, this typically means choosing either the F305 or the F306" ... no clue what that means. Maybe that's not a big deal.
• "There are two races per weekend, one of approximately 100-110km and one of approximately 70-80km, preceded by one 60-minute practice session and a qualifying session that decides the starting grid for the first race." Usually people order in chronological order - practice, qualify, race 1, race 2.
• References style, as noted an agree above.

Other than that, I'd give it a try. I've never been involved with a good article before, so take my comments with a grain of salt. Royalbroil ^T : C 01:37, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

"Haven't heard of it"? Shame! Think Star Mazda series, but with an arguably higher standard of drivers. F3 is where you'll spot most of the future world champions. Briefly, here's a few changes/notes:

• I have tweaked your first intro, 4ule, but it didn't need many changes. It's a good addition.
• F305, etc. are chassis spec numbers, which I thought would be self-explanatory for those who aren't familiar with European feeder formulae. But I have taken your point on board and clarified the sentence.
• I have re-arranged the description of the race weekend. I'm not too keen on your use of "approximately"; I prefer "circa", but I have left that edit unchanged for now.
• Refs will be changed when time allows.
• Re: your edit note about the official website. This is one of the biggest sources of Euroseries data and news on the web, so it formed a part of my research.
• I got a couple of non-racing friends to look over it and they found it okay.

Thanks for your input, guys. Adrian M. H. 16:09, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

You're welcome. Feel free to change to circa then. I would expect to see "approximately" instead of "circa" in the U.S., but use the European word choices as this is a European article. The usage of c. could be confusing as an abbreviation for circa, but I did think that's what you meant. In the U.S., I've only seen circa used for discussing uncertain dates, not statistics.

I like how you reworded the events of the race weekend.

I commented on the official website because the reviewers will definitely question using the official website as a source per Wikipedia:Verifiability#Sources's section "Self-published sources (online and paper)". You will likely need to be able to verify most of the information with independent Wikipedia:Reliable sources, and their website will not be considered usable as it is a primary source. I see this topic come up all the time in WP:AFD when discussing an article. It definitely needs to be there as an External link (obviously). Royalbroil ^T : C 16:37, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, RoyalBroil. Glad you think that the tweaks work. I see what you mean about the "primary source" issue - luckily the citations are almost all from other sources, and the data is largely duplicated on two other sites (not including forix.autosport.com, which I have recently found to be inaccurate in its 2004 season results). I think it's not far off being ready for a review nomination. Adrian M. H. 16:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Oddly I've never had the primary source problem, and most of the articles I put significant work into use www.formula1.com as a reference. Usually only for race/championship results, though, and I can't see there's much wrong with using primary sources for that! 4u1e 21:19, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Ow, my eyes hurt! But it has had further tweaks, an extra image, and 21 references. Ready for a GA review, I think. The Sebastien Loeb article is next on my list..... Adrian M. H. 00:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

I've taken the liberty of putting it on the list. (See WP:GAC#Everyday_life). It can take a long time for articles to work through, like the best part of a month, although there aren't many sports articles at present, so you never know....If whoever reviews it has any concerns they will likely leave a comment on the article talk page, and give you about a week to fix any issues before failing the article. It pays to keep an eye on it! 4u1e 01:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Nice one, 4u1e. Thanks for that. I'll keep an eye on it and with any luck, WP:MS might have its first GA. Adrian M. H. 16:03, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] AfD on Ollie Silva

• The bio article on northeastern USA supermodified and modified driver Ollie Silva has been proposed for deletion. Silva had a feature article in Stock Car Racing magazine in the '70s but that's not online. I'm sure he was also featured in newspapers and trade papers for winning various races such as several Star Classics. Can someone find sources and add citations to the article, so that it will meet WP standards and be worth keeping? Barno 18:26, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

It certainly needs a re-write if it is to stay. Apart from the lack of citations, there are weasel words and POV statements. Due to the time that has passed since Silva was active, it may be nearly impossible to find usable sources. Adrian M. H. 18:44, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

• "Nearly impossible"? I disagree. If the major New England newspapers don't have their pre-Internet content indexed online, all we need is someone to go to the newspaper office, check "Dynamite Ollie"'s name in their card index, and take notes on a few of the most notable ones. The NEAR Hall of Fame has a webpage on him, and there are hundreds of hits on a Google search, including an important touring-series race named in his memory. Many of the tributes featuring him are fan sites that are less WP:RS, useful only as sources of supporting material, but there are multiple non-trivial independent sources that can be found and used. Barno 23:49, 5 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, it sounds as if you would be more than up to the task of doing the re-write yourself. Adrian M. H. 14:33, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I rewrote the article (more or less from scratch), and it appears that the nominator has withdrawn the nomination. Royalbroil ^T : C 15:21, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Use of project banner

I'd like to get a consensus about when it is, or is not, appropriate or necessary to apply our project banner to a particular article. For example, Ayrton Senna has been tagged with this project's banner, which seems to be unnecessary duplication as it falls directly under WP:F1. I would say that we only need to tag articles that do not currently have a more specific motorsport-related project banner, which was my reasoning for creating this banner in the first instance. That would also mean that Category:Unassessed motorsport articles will only include articles that need our attention. What are your thoughts? Adrian M. H. 19:04, 6 January 2007 (UTC)

I came here to start a discussion to comment on that, and I'm happy to see you had started a discussion. Definitely do not apply banner for Senna, Formula 3000 or GP2 IMO. The only possible exception if they raced in multiple forms/series like Michael Andretti, Mario Andretti, Juan Pablo Montoya, A. J. Foyt, Steve Millen, Walker Evans (racer), Parnelli Jones to name a few. Then I think we should, but it's not a strong opinion. Cheers! Royalbroil ^T : C 06:46, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the reply - I'm glad you agree. I'll remove the banner from the affected pages - only a few at the moment. I'll start adding it to more applicable articles as I find them. Adrian M. H. 15:31, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category: Unassessed motorsport articles

There are now plenty of articles waiting for review and possible attention at Unassessed motorsport articles. I have found quite a lot, mostly in touring cars and European single seaters, but I'm sure there are more to find! - Adrian M. H. 23:08, 8 January 2007 (UTC)

I think the previous topic probably addresses my point, but are we intending to use the motorsport banner to rate F1 articles (for example) or do we need to mod the F1 banner to include the article rating? 4u1e 16:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I think we should avoid duplication unless necessary, so I have been tagging only those articles that fall outside existing projects, plus one or two exceptions that need our attention due to significant crossover - for example, there was one article - can't remember which one off-hand - that had the WP:F1 template, but the driver had only a minor link with F1 and was much more significantly linked with other disciplines that don't have projects. So he got our template as well. Basically, I see this project as doing two things:

• Bringing together the existing projects to improve cross-collaboration.
• Giving us a way of working on those subjects that do not have their own projects.

So I think we should avoid diluting or confusing our efforts by duplicating the tagging. The F1 project may benefit from its own rating system to help with articles that need attention, but that project is a long way down the road and the members have got it pretty well organised. Here, the rating system is more important, while we get things started. Adrian M. H. 16:44, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

I think F1 could benefit from the same approach actually - it might help us decide which articles need work next (presumably the high importance and low quality ones!). That's a matter for the F1 project, though, I'll raise it there, I just wanted to check that I wasn't cutting across something you were doing. 4u1e 17:03, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox templates for drivers and teams

I'm about to create some standard infobox templates for use with articles that relate to, for example, GP2 and F3 drivers and teams. I figured that current and former would be suitable, like we use in WP:F1, and I will probably adapt those existing templates to our needs. If we can make one set of templates (four in total) that suits drivers and teams from all relevant series, that would be ideal. In the past, I made Template:DTM driver, which is used only on Jamie Green at the moment, so we could replace that with the new design for simplicity. Any thoughts/input welcome. Adrian M. H. 19:22, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

This is one of the major reasons for the WikiProject in my mind. I think we should come up with an infobox that covers all the children WikiProjects encompassed by this WikiProject. Then it would work for someone like Juan Pablo Montoya would has jumped from WP:American Open Wheel to F1 to NASCAR. It would be a standard look between all WikiProjects. All the fields would need to be optional so only relevant ones would appear. It could be used on people who lie outside all of the WikiProjects too. Look at how complicated the WikiProject NASCAR template is. It might serve as a starting point. I haven't worked on any of the templates myself. I wonder if the template could be set up with quite a few variables for series names instead of hard coded field names, and then the template could be used for many types of series. It's hard to explain what I'm thinking. Royalbroil ^T : C 21:24, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes.... possible. It would work from a technical standpoint. From a practical standpoint, pop over to WP:F1 and raise the idea there. Have a look through the many dicussions about infoboxes first.

[edit] Championships

In the meantime, I have started working on a championship template, based on Template:Infobox sports league. You can view a comparison here. My only problem at this point is the unnecessarily large gap between the fields and the data, which breaks longer lines, like ASM Formule 3. Can anyone suggest a fix for this? Or any other tips that you think would help to improve it? Many thanks. Adrian M. H. 21:45, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

Comments on the Template:Infobox motorsport championship: It looks quite relevant for all types of motorsports, even oddballs like off-road racing. A few problems that I see: 1) the "inaugural season", among others. NASCAR has a 1949 in NASCAR article that I'm sure that consensus we would prefer to use instead of 1949 in sports. The same thing with IROC. American Open Wheel racing is contemplating working on it. 2) "Number of drivers" and "number of teams". That would work well in WP:IROC (a fixed number are invited), and most likely WP:F1. It probably would work ok in WP:AOWR (American Open Wheel racing). That's won't work at all in WP:NASCAR. There are 60+ teams fighting for 43 spots in the Daytona 500 race weekend. Some races have 43 entries, but most are 45 to 50. Teams and drivers come and go during the season. It would be impossible to pin down a number. We could just use the term "varies" otherwise. Otherwise could you just add comments into the code telling the contributor to use "2007 in sport|2007" if there is no season article? Otherall I think it takes the top spot on the podium (to use the F1 term). Royalbroil ^T : C 02:33, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I already fine-tuned the category link to take it to Category:{{YEAR}} in motor racing. We'll see how that works out. I'm about to work out a way of creating more detail in the automatic bits, so that it gives specific details while being easy to fill in. Numbers are pretty easy to pin down in most series, and if I can do it for Euro F3 (which is pretty transient) then it can be done for each series in NASCAR. My intention was to base it on the last season's figures. There are two approaches: One - we count every driver who started, or two - we count the number of seats available by entrant (ie. not counting driver changes). eg:

• GP2 series - 30 drivers, 13 teams [1] [2]

We may also need fields (optional, as they all are) for constructors and engine suppliers. eg:

• Recaro Cup - 5 constructors, 5 engine suppliers.

What are your thoughts? - Adrian M. H. 17:00, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Current version viewable here. - Adrian M. H. 12:57, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I think we should count every driver who has made a start for drivers, and count every team that made a start. The number of engine suppliers might be hard to figure out in NASCAR, as teams used to make up their own motors. Now the top Ford teams research together to make most of the Ford motors. I don't know if any of the small teams make up their own motor or not. It's probably not a real big deal, so I wouldn't worry about it. It would be very difficult for anyone who's not an insider in off-road racing like CORR to figure out. The contributor could just leave it blank in a case like that. Then the field wouldn't be included in the infobox, right? It is an important piece of data in most open wheel series, so I would say include the field. Royalbroil ^T : C 15:11, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Hello there. I'm glad you said that, because I have just added the box to the DTM article and - as it's a touring car formula - I have left the engines out of the equation. (Although I do need to alter the template to make the field optional). I have so far taken two different approaches to the number of entrants - GP2 Series has the total number, as you suggest, while the DTM has been left strictly as per the official entry list. There are pros and cons in each case, namely: most European series have strict entry limits, such as 12 two-car teams, which benefits from the entry list-based approach for sake of clarity. Meanwhile, you have NASCAR and other U.S. series that do not have such restrictive entry list limits and are more transient. Difficult. I still can't make my mind up about which to go for, but we need to establish a standard practice for consistency's sake. So, I will have to err towards your preference for the total number of active competitors, based not least on the fact that every championship article should describe the entry list limits where applicable. ie, GP2 would mention that it is restricted to 12 teams and 24 cars. Each season article - if present - should summarise the reasons behind additional entrants and driver changes. NASCAR aside, for obvious reasons. I took that kind of approach with the F3 Euroseries seasons and it works well to explain where these extra drivers have suddenly come from. All those in favour of listing the total number of competitors, say aye... Adrian M. H. 18:36, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

A problem I'm seeing with the chart as it stands now is that, for Wikipedia:WikiProject Sports Car Racing, it is inherently difficult to fulfill a lot of these categories just because of the nature of sports car racing. Numbers of drivers will be difficult on its own due to the large number of drivers in each car, as well as the multiple changes to driver line ups. Same applies to teams that do not run every race. This continues with chassis constructors and engine constructors, which is so varied its not even funny. Especially when some chassis or engine manufacturers have multiple cars in a series (Lola had 4 different chassis in ALMS in 2006.) The list of champions will also be difficult to list since there should be a list of champions for each class, instead of a single overall champion. The359 17:45, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

These are the kinds of problems that I was anticipating. The driver numbers are quite easy, though; we have established that it would be best to enter the total number of drivers with presences. Chassis constructors should be easy as well. If you want classes, they could be added, though I would expect the outright champion/s to be listed (two or three names can be entered with line breaks). I haven't got any sportscar series reviews to hand right now, otherwise I would give you an example for, say, ALMS. But let's say for sake of argument that there were 4 LMP1 constructors, 4 LMP2, 4 GT1, and 5 GT2 represented: that gives you 17. Then let's say that they were all present at a race that requires three-man crews, with 2 cars each: that's 102 drivers. Then later in the course of the year, 10 drivers were replaced: 112 drivers.

If you need a lot of specific fields and feel that existing fields are not suitable, we may need to make a sportscar championship infobox, which I would be happy to do. Adrian M. H. 18:04, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drivers

I could use some input in the design of Template:Racing driver, or whatever we choose to call it. Points that need sorting are as follows:

• I ideally want to have only one driver infobox for most formulae, except where unusual requirements make a dedicated design essential. The question is; how should we display their current series? Do I put it in the sub-heading, like Template:DTM driver, which will require that people fill in the entire wikilink, or is better to have a Category field instead?
• Is it best to list all teams or just the current team?
• Or would you prefer to see a driver infobox for every series (GP2, F3, WTCC, etc. etc.)?

More questions as they occur to me. I will include optional fields for car and engine, to cater for all possibilities. Adrian M. H. 17:35, 17 January 2007 (UTC)

Good question. I have been thinking about it since I last proposed creating a driver's infobox. I have changed my mind. I don't think that we should have a single standardized driver's infobox. What works well for F1 and many other open wheel series doesn't work at all for NASCAR (for example). Podiums finishes work well for the open wheel cars, but they are roughly equivalent to Top 10 (or at least Top 5) finishes in NASCAR. I have NEVER heard a Top 3 finish discussed in NASCAR and it is meaningless (I do understand how it is important from IndyCar racing). A sample article where you can see the large difference at the article Mark Martin (NASCAR). I do think a generic template would be cool to use for drivers that fall outside of the children WikiProjects. A common template could be used for most but not all of the articles if there are not too many exceptions. Another question:

• • What about retired drivers? Royalbroil ^T : C 05:07, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Hello, RB. To answer your last point first, I want to make a former driver infobox, so that will come next. Although some of its fields could be added to the current driver infobox, it still needs to have "Former DTM driver" instead of "2007 DTM driver", so I will definitely make a second design. NASCAR is, indeed, a unique case - I hope that I can collaborate with a member of the NASCAR project on those boxes. While my knowledge of NASCAR is pretty good (for a European!) I don't have much interest in it, to be honest.

I only intend these multifunction infoboxes to be used where practical, with special boxes made for certain series. I think that's better than making a separate set of boxes for every series. There are approximately 30 single-seater feeder series in Europe alone! For the teams, I think I may add a former teams field below the current team field. What do you think? Adrian M. H. 16:39, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

That all sounds reasonable to me. You should bring up any discussion on the NASCAR template in the WikiProject, so everyone can discuss. Royalbroil ^T : C 18:14, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

Template:Infobox racing driver has now been created, although it needs a bit of tweaking. I'll put it on the project page when it's ready. Adrian M. H. 13:15, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

---

I had cause to review the possible applications for Infobox racing driver today, and found that it is less than ideal for drivers who have no prior history — (ie, progressing through feeder series) — in their current championship, or do not have a drive yet — (ie, Paul di Resta) — so I created Junior series driver for these occasions. It is not entirely finished yet — I think it may need more fields? — so suggestions would be welcome. I also need to make a template for former drivers (retired or the offers have dried up), for which you are welcome to suggest suitable fields here. Adrian M. H. 23:40, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Formulae

I'm working on Template:Motorsport formula, specifically for use on the generic articles about F3, FRenault, etc. where the formula has more than one championship, each of which have dedicated articles. The championship articles can use Template:Infobox motorsport championship instead. Applicable articles include:

• Formula Three
• Formula Ford
• Formula Renault
• Super 2000 (Surprising that it doesn't have an article, given that most of Europe's touring car championships use it!)
• Super 1600
• Group N

And so on... Things like GP2 and the DTM can stay with what they have, as the formula and the championship are one and the same.
However, I'm not sure what other fields the infobox needs, so I'd appreciate some suggestions of what you'd like to see. Adrian M. H. 14:56, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Well, the number of championships that the formula is used in seems like a good start. The problem is that applying an infobox/template to a formula that encompasses many championships rules out fields such as last champion, number of teams etc. Perhaps a general "Type of car" or "Type of racing" field can be included. For example: Open wheel car, Touring car racing, Sports car racing etc.--Diniz 18:27, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that's in there already. It so far has the type of racing, the first and last years, and a countries/region field for UK/Europe/International or whatever. I wondered about engine type/size and things like that, without going too technical. I'll add a field for the number of series - that is a good idea. Adrian M. H. 18:37, 19 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] template:Racing car

template:Racing car may be of of interest to some Motorsport projects. It originated in WP:F1, but is intended to be of use for any article on a racing car. Given its origins it may not yet be fully mature for this purpose, it's mostly been used on F1 cars to date. Comments and improvements welcome. 4u1e 13:54, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for spotting the change in Sauber C20, 4u1e. It was modified by another user ages ago, but I never got around to reverting it. Adrian M. H. 16:37, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I left a comment on the talk page for the template. Royalbroil ^T : C 15:25, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Automatically adding up article ratings

I've (perhaps unwisely) embarked on an article rating scheme for the F1 articles (In other words I've copied the WP:MOTOR infobox and rated a few articles).

I see from WP:NASCAR that it is possible to produce a table that automatically adds up the number of articles in each category. I also see that the code I have copied from the WP:MOTOR box will currently add rated F1 articles to the WP:MOTOR totals for each category.

I can fix that so they go in a separate F1 category, which seems to be in line with what we agreed above about normally only tagging articles as belonging to one project. Is that the approach the WP:MOTOR would prefer to take? (I don't know if it is then possible to automatically add up the totals of all child projects to give a grand total, or if this is relevant). Cheers. 4u1e 14:00, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Making work for yourself! If you can figure it a way of keeping them separate, that would be preferable, yes. Don't worry too much about a grand total: it would probably be better to provide a link to each total somewhere. Adrian M. H. 16:41, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree it would be preferable to keep the article separate by WikiProject. I wouldn't worry about the child project's totals. I don't understand how the WP:NASCAR table works, as I haven't been very active in the WikiProject since summer. I've been concentrating my efforts more on some of the lesser know but important historic and current motor racing articles the United States, especially asserting drivers' notability from racing Halls of Fame. I was amazed when I kept finding stuff on Board track racing, a huge yet unheard of racing genre from about 100 years ago. Is there anything that could be added to the article to expand its world view? Royalbroil ^T : C 15:46, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

What we should do is have categories for F1 articles, NASCAR articles etc, but change all the projects' infoboxes to additionally put them in the motorsport articles category. That way we can have separate totals and a grand total. Readro 21:22, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

There is a problem with that, at least at this moment in time. I'm relying on w:Category:Unassessed motorsport articles to give me a list of articles that are likely to need improvement. If we can get to the point at which we have a more organised - and properly managed - task list, then your suggestion would be more workable. But it would be a good idea to hold off on that for now. Adrian M. H. 21:44, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I've just twigged that if I add the summary page of, say, GA-class F1 articles, to category:GA-class motorsport articles, it puts a link to the F1 GA page on the Motorsport GA page. Is my doing that going to cause any problems? That would give us a hierarchical listing of articles in each category. Cheers. 4u1e 23:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Mario Andretti

Just rating Mario's article from an F1 perspective. He's one of the few who probably should be tagged as 'belonging' to more than one motorsport Wikiproject. I see the article has been classed as 'B-class', but I'm not sure I agree. The coverage of his Indycar career is very sketchy indeed, for example. I would have had it as start. Anyone want to offer a second opinion? (I would normally just change it, but he's a significant figure in at least two Wikiprojects, so I thought I'd raise it here. Cheers. 4u1e 15:28, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

I would assess his article at start class, and the Indycar section as stub. A complete Indycar section would probably bring it up to B-class. I'll put it on my To-Do list for next week! Thanks for the heads up! Royalbroil ^T : C 15:50, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

That is a tricky one. It is written from a largely F1 perspective - understandable, as it probably reflects the strongest area of knowledge for the primary contributor/s - but in fact warrants a collaboration between specialists in each field. The article's structure is reflective of B-class; yet the content holds it back, as you have pointed out. Start-class would be too harsh, given what it has versus what it lacks. I would suggest bringing it to the attention of WP:AOWR to seek the help of a specialist. I've got too much backlog to take on another improvement effort right now, otherwise I would work on it. Anyone with access to some of the many good books about Mario would find it easy to get it up to GA standard. Adrian M. H. 17:04, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

He was always one of my racing idols, so I'd like to be the WP:AOWR specialist to improve that part of it! I haven't worked with many contributors with your levels of experience, and I welcome the chance to be mentored to greatly improve an article this important to me. I've been looking a long time for an opportunity to improve my skills and grow as a contributor. I haven't even worked to make an article GA. I have done 15 DYK articles though, and I wrote about 13 of them all by myself. Let me be the one to propose: I want this to be a featured article when we are done with it! It would be an excellent use and justification of this WikiProject! Royalbroil ^T : C 05:14, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

We need at least one featured article, and this is a good candidate with lots of potential. I would also like to identify one other FA-suitable article that is not currently covered by the other projects, because such an article would likely get neglected otherwise. As for Mario, I might be able to chip in with some small contributions in due course; I'll have a proper close look at it in a few days and see where it's at. Adrian M. H. 13:49, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Would Danny Sullivan also come under both F1 and IndyCar? Or would he, understandbly (see 1985 Indy 500) more famous in IndyCar.--Skully Collins ^Edits 16:06, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

With no really notable GP results, I'm sure he would rather be known for his Indy win. Adrian M. H. 16:17, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] New task page

To make it easier to manage our project, I have moved the task list from the main page to its own dedicated sub-page atWikipedia:WikiProject Motorsport/Tasks. I have kept just two categories for now, to keep it simple, but as it grows, we can sub-divide them a bit more. Either by the nature of the work that's required, or by racing category, for example. Adrian M. H. 14:56, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Formula BMW

As you can see from the above link, the main article is just a list of the four series, while the three active pages do not - in my opinion, at least - warrant their own articles. I propose that we (or I!) merge the series articles into the parent article and re-write it, which will allow the creation of a proper encyclopædic article that meets all the usual guidelines and policies. Please comment here, and if the response is positive, I'll set up a merge proposal on the affected pages. Adrian M. H. 16:41, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Merge 'em. Even then, there's probably only a stub's worth of content, unfortunately. 4u1e 23:23, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I'll get that underway soon. I think it can probably be stretched out into a B-class, as there's more that can be added. Adrian M. H. 23:29, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

Absolutely - more can be added, I meant it's not there at present. Cheers. 4u1e 23:42, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I didn't comment before this because I was unfamiliar with the series. I did a fair bit of rewording in the U.S. section. Please review my edits to make sure that they make sense. There should be a list of champions as a minimum, and a list of Rookies of the Year might make sense too. I think that I have included a list of champions in every series' article that I started. The rest of the article looks great from my perspective. Royalbroil ^T : C 22:00, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for that. That has improved it, though I will make a couple of small tweaks. It's not finished yet, of course, as there is still the UK section, event schedules, and sporting regulations to do. The results are at least a day away, since the original separate articles had nothing but a brief list of former champions, so I have been working from scratch. You can see the work in progress here. Only the UK and US championships have recognised Rookie titles, so I may not include those. I'll see how it pans out. Adrian M. H. 22:11, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

Pretty much sorted now. Adrian M. H. 19:31, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Progress update - failed GA on the first go (see talk:Formula BMW). I think I've sorted the issues raised and have re-submitted it. Cheers. 4u1e 22:58, 2 March 2007 (UTC)

I have since made further changes and it has now passed the GA review process. Adrian M. H. 23:00, 4 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Results tables for drivers and teams

I have added a more informative results table to Lucas di Grassi. If the consensus is positive, I suggest using this kind of layout for the other GP2 drivers, which would bring them into line with F1 drivers.
Also, I'm working on a teams results table in my sandbox, for which some feedback would be useful. I'm not totally sure about that layout, so I'll throw it open to you guys for suggestions. I don't think it needs individual race results, or anything like that, but the appearance is not quite right. Regards, Adrian M. H. 18:07, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] First GA rating for WP:Motorsport

WP:Motorsport now has its first Good Article: Formula Three Euroseries. My thanks to RoyalBroil and 4u1e for their contributions. Next step: a Featured Article! Adrian M. H. 16:04, 31 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WikiProject Australian Motorsport

Any objections to me listing WikiProject Australian motorsport as a child project? DH85868993 09:30, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
None at all. You may want to swap a few of the projects around to make room on one side of the page. Adrian M. H. 12:13, 3 February 2007 (UTC)

Good idea! Royalbroil ^T : C 06:04, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Done. DH85868993 09:54, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] More Mario Andretti

1. Would someone source his Formula One section.
2. How far is the article away from consideration/proposing Good Article status? I need to expand his years after Formula One. I'm surprised that the sources are so weak on that period, for he was a huge force in CART at that time. Royalbroil ^T : C 15:35, 22 February 2007 (UTC)

I've done most of a dummy assessment against GA criteria for the Andretti article (see talk:Mario Andretti). I hope it's helpful - drop me a line if I've been unclear about anything. Cheers. 4u1e 7 March 2007, 13:43

[edit] Assessment Page on WPMotorsport

I've made some pages on the WikiProject Motorsport Assessment page. I've done this so it goes in line with other projects, see this assessment page for example. Please don't delete it though - it's taken a long time for me to do. Davnel03 22:26, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Assessments

I've noticed some odd assessing. Juan Manuel Fangio is only as important as Formula Palmer Audi apparently. Shouldn't all the F1 champions be top-class importance due to their international notability? Readro 16:19, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

I assumed that this system was intended to indicate how much attention each article needs. If that is not the case, then I have a couple of objections of my own. Beyond that, I am not involving myself in this rating system, as I have other objections that relate to this area of the project. Adrian M. H. 16:42, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

No, it's not to do with any attention the article needs, but to how important the subject of the article is. For example, Mario Andretti would be highly important due to his achievements in many disciplines including Formula 1 and Indycar racing. A minor driver, say Danny Watts for example, would be of a low importance. The guidelines are on the assessment page. Readro 20:03, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

It serves no practical purpose then. Adrian M. H. 21:10, 3 March 2007 (UTC)

The assessment system is seriously flawed. I don't understand how every world champion in F1 history could be anything other than a Top priority article. He is a WORLD CHAMPION. It cannot be true that Michael Schumacher "has not achieved international notability, or is only notable within a particular continent" and thus be assigned as a High priority. He's easily the best F1 driver over the past decade. I'm not a F1 fan, but even stockcar gearheads recognize F1 as the world champ. I call for the assessment criteria to be changed immediately. Royalbroil ^T : C 02:36, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

What is the point of the assessment system? It just seems like creating extra work. Surely time spent assessing the priority of article would be better spent actually working on the articles rather than deciding how important they are? Everyone working on the project knows what the main articles are anyway (e.g. Champions, important races etc.). Alexj2002 16:50, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

How do we rate importance anyway, when comparing all motorsport? For example, Roberto Ravaglia was one of the most successful touring car drivers in history (WTCC in 1987, ETCC in 86, 89 etc), but how do we compare his importance against someone who started one F1 race? Or against someone in NASCAR for example? The assessment page examples (Importance scale) are currently all Formula One related, so not much help. --Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 21:18, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I think there's a clue in the standard wording about 'continents'. It's to do with being recognised outside your field. Schumacher and most F1 champs are recognised outside their fields. Not all though - I suspect Denny Hulme, Phil Hill and a few others actually aren't recognised anything like as widely. This kind of debate shows the potential risk in doing these assessments though - we can spend a lot of time discussing it and not improving the articles. I've no objection to having the importance rating, the information about which articles are at which level may be quite interesting, provided we all solemnly promise not to worry too much about whether they're right! 4u1e 6 March 2007, 11:13

May I propose a new assessment system for importance? I've thrown together this new system quite quickly, but you'll see how it's much more definitive. Feel free to tweak it as it's by no means perfect, but it should serve as a proof of concept. Readro 18:27, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Seems good to me. Only exception would be the Very Low category, I think the way it's worded at the moment ("No significant motorsport achievements.") seems to invite deletionists to get rid of articles with that rating on the basis if he's done nothing significant he doesn't belong on the Wikipedia. It needs something in it to warrant inclusion. "Competition in a feeder series" maybe? Alexj2002 21:00, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

How would you grade an international feeder formula that does not represent the top level? It would sit between your examples for very high and upper middle. Adrian M. H. 21:02, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

It looks OK, but I feel that you have too many categories. Here's how you could do it:

Article importance grading scheme

Label	Criteria
	Drivers	Series	Circuits	Teams
Top	Multiple championships in one or more international series, or championships in more than one top-level series.	Top-level international series.	At least 40 years hosting international motorsport events.	Multiple championships in one or more international series, or championships in more than one top-level series.
	Example : Michael Schumacher	Example : Formula One	Example : Monza	Example : McLaren
High	Single championship in an international series or race wins in more than one international series.	International top-level feeder series.	At least 25 years hosting international motorsport events.	Single championship in an international series or race wins in more than one international series.
	Example : Phil Hill	Example : Formula 3000	Example : Interlagos	Example : DAMS
Mid	Race wins in a top-level series or championships in a second level series.	Top-level national series	At least 10 years hosting international motorsport events.	Race wins in a top-level series or championships in a second level series.
	Example : Gerhard Berger	Example : Formula Three	Example : Albert Park	Example : Team Dynamics
Low	Competition in a top-level feeder series or race wins in a lower series.	Low-level national series.	Major national tracks	Competition in a top-level feeder series or race wins in a lower series.
	Example : Bruno Senna	Example : Formula BMW	Example : Thruxton Circuit	Example : BCN Competicion

But the whole point of Readro's system was to remove the ambiguousness of that system! For example "Race wins in a top-level series or championships in a second level series." is clearer to most people than "Article is extremely notable, but has not achieved international notability, or is only notable within a particular continent." Alexj2002 22:04, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

Yes, I know it's not good, but if somebody could make one much smaller, it would look very good. I think this is a good comprise, so we keep Readro's example, but also maintain the current system. Everyone agree? Davnel03 22:07, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

That's weird, I'm sure that should have thrown up an edit conflict as you were editing the page while I was writing my response above. My response now makes no sense at all so ignore it! Alexj2002 22:06, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

In response to User:4u1e (6 March 2007, 11:13) where you refer to the standard wording about 'continents' and give the example of Denny Hulme. That is an interesting example, as Denny Hulme was not only a Formula One champion (a series best know in Europe), but he was also a 2 times CanAm champion and also completed at the Indianapolis 500 (both in North America) and in his later years, competed in Australian Touring Cars... so that's three continents so far. :-). Does that put him higher on the scale than Michael Schumacher? Maybe? Maybe not? How about higher than Mika Häkkinen or Fernando Alonso? We might argue that they are better known, but is that simply because they are more recent and global TV (and Internet) makes them a household name? While most wikipedia editors are too young to remember 1960's F1 and CanAm series... and that's just an example of the difficuly comparing F1 drivers... let alone other series. However, agree with your '"can spend a lot of time discussing it and not improving the articles"' comment. --Xagent86 (Talk | contribs) 06:52, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I was going to do a lengthy reply to your very fair points re Hulme and Hill, Xagent, but then re-read my own comment from above! One quick thought - let's also try and remember to be flexible with the importance ratings. As an example, Gilles Villeneuve never won a championship, but probably rates a higher importance than suggested above due to the legend that has grown up around him since (and before, actually) his death. I suggest the importance ratings should be seen as more guidelines than rules! 4u1e 7 March 2007, 10:25

Right, do we like the above template, or Readro's example. By the way, a very similar argument is taking place over at the WP F1 talk page about this grading. Davnel03 16:47, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Good. But IMO the circuit column is slightly flawed. Because by the assessment ruling, I can add my local circuit, Oulton Park, as "very high" or at least "high" because it's hosted several major international events, such as Oulton Park Gold Cup. Now, maybe this is just typical me (ie nothing I'm related to (those being articles, p[laces, etc...not people ;-)) is good or notable) but I don't think Oulton Park is a seriously legendary circuit, especially when you put it alongside Monza, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Silverstone, etc.

But then again, that's just me.--Skully Collins ^Edits 16:54, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Changes in Templates

Hi, I'm currently making some changes over on the WikiProject Motorsport Assessment Page. Look in the statistics section. Only 240 articles have the template WikiProject Motorsport on it. I'm thererfore going to propose something (I think this has been discussed a while back). Can every single Motorsport article have the template on it's talk page. My reasoning for this is that some drivers have only the Formula One template on the article. However, surely (by the way, this goes for virtually all articles), they haven't got to Formula One someway. They haven't just been thrown into F1, I don't think any drivers done that. They've gone through other forms of Motorsport. Therefore, surely the Wikipedia Motorsport template is needed for every single Motorsport article?. I'm going to do a vote on this (on this page, plus the Motorsport project and all the child projects) so we can get a decision on this. By the way, don't bother voting on different projects, as only one of your votes will count! Davnel03 16:53, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

• Agree

• Disagree
• Strongly disagree - Adrian M. H. 21:41, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
• Disagree - Simply because talk pages will become cluttered. There is no real need for it on every page. See my comment below aswell. James086^Talk 09:30, 6 March 2007 (UTC)
• Disagree - talk page clutter. Additional comments below. Royalbroil ^T : C 01:43, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

• Leave Comments Here

See "Use of project banner" discussion above. When WP:MOTOR was set up, it was intended to be used primarily to collect those articles who didn't already fall into a motorsport related Wikiproject, and to allow discussions on articles who's subject had competed in two major series (e.g. F1 and CART). For example, if a driver were to go F3>F3000>F1, then I feel it should only be part of WP:F1. Alexj2002 17:25, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I'd like to say that you have a point, but look at Juan Montoya. On the talk page, WikiProject Motorsport is not identified. Davnel03 17:33, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

Yeah, and Montoya is one of the exceptions that should have an WP:MOTOR banner. Same goes for Jacques Villeneuve and Mansell. On the other hand, people like Damon Hill & David Coulthard have not raced at a top level apart from in F1, so don't need the WP:MOTOR banner IMO. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Alexj2002 (talk • contribs) 18:22, 5 March 2007 (UTC).

This hardly needs to be voted on. It is quite clear that our previous consensus does not need to be reviewed. Placing a parent project's banner on all articles creates unnecessary duplication; serves little or no practical purpose; makes extra work; and makes it a lot harder for those of us who use the motorsport articles categories to define our workload and priorities therein. Adrian M. H. 21:41, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

I suggest only if that article has a section mentioning their career in a different motorsport. So if you have a driver whose history outside F1 (for example) is not mentioned in the article, don't tag it with {{WikiProject Motorsport}}, but if there is a significant amount of info about their history that isn't covered by another WPP then it's ok. Does that make sense, cause I think my wording is a bit confusing? James086^Talk 09:30, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

• I have contributed to I'm sure thousands of motorsports articles in the United States alone. I don't see how it benefits the Wikipedia project by marking tens of thousands of articles with this template. It seems like a waste of resources to IMHO. I could only see adding it to the handful of drivers that cross major disciplines of motorsports (like Walker Evans (racer) being a major driver in off-road racing plus NASCAR). It should also be applied to drivers from multiple major series that have their own WikiProject like Montoya. That is ANY two of the WikiProjects, except WikiProject IROC, which has by definition top drivers from other series. Or to mark the children WikiProjects. I think it should be added to the main article on unusual disciplines like board track racing and ice racing that will never have a WikiProject to monitor them. I was originally with Davnel03 until Adrain and I talked. Then I thought about how much work that marking talk pages would be. Royalbroil ^T : C 01:43, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

---

I've been at work! I have created another option. For example, Juan Pablo Montoya might have this template - here is the output for {{User:Readro/Sandbox|class=B|importance=high|F1=yes|NASCAR=yes|NASCAR-importance=mid|AOWR=yes}}

	This article is part of a parent project - WikiProject Motorsport - which brings together motorsport-related WikiProjects. It aims to co-ordinate the projects and improve the common aspects of various categories of motorsport. Consult the project page for further information. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
B	This article has been rated as B-Class on the quality scale.
High	This article has been rated as high-Importance on the Importance scale.
This article is also part of the following child WikiProjects
				Project Importance
	WikiProject Formula One	to-do	portal
	WikiProject NASCAR	to-do		Mid
	WikiProject American Open Wheel Racing

This could free up a lot of space on the page. Comments are welcome. Readro 22:42, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

You don't need the pictures for subsidiary projects; they take up vertical space unnecessarily. Other than that, it's okay. Adrian M. H. 22:54, 6 March 2007 (UTC)

I love the proposed template. I do like the pictures, as they give the necessary space to make the ratings to the right more readable. Can the template be designed so that it only shows the multiple WikiProjects that the driver is in instead of all the children WikiProjects? Royalbroil ^T : C 01:43, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

And will the template effect with the child project's rating categorization systems? Royalbroil ^T : C 01:46, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

It already only shows the child WikiProjects that the article is in. Try adding British=yes or WRC=yes to the template and you'll see it show the respective WikiProjects. And to the other question - it does everything the current projects' templates do, and adds the articles to the correct categories for the projects. Readro 02:33, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Great! Then you have my support (to be used as outlined by concensus above). Royalbroil ^T : C 04:02, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I like the approach, I was going to try and knock up something similar for the parallel version of this conversation that is going on at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Formula_One#Changes_in_Templates. Anything that can be done to cut down on the size of the template gets my vote, though. 4u1e 7 March 2007, 10:29

Question: Do we need the different ratings for F1, NASCAR etc? The importance scale is based on the assumption that we are taking a worldwide view anyway, so would seem to be redundant for each WikiProject. The quality ought really to be the same in each case, it's the same article. However, they are needed if we want different stacks of stats for each project, which might be a good idea - does it make any sense to mix NASCAR in with F1? 4u1e 7 March 2007, 10:36

I agree that the quality should be the same in all WikiProjects. However, each WikiProject may be using the importance to decide the priority to work on articles, so I think that we should have different ratings for each WikiProject. Royalbroil ^T : C 13:09, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Hooray, a universal template. Well done that editor. I'd agree that we could do away with the child project quality rating, but it might actually be useful for the individual projects to have their own importance scale, especially as the WP Motorsport priority should always be set from a whole-project point of view (so I would disagree with JPM being "High" for instance, although he might be for AOWR). Pyrope 14:40, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks, seems like we finally have a decision!! Shall we go round and start changing the templates, then? If so, inform everybody over at the other WikiProjects related to Motorsport, in case somebody disagrees with us. Davnel03 16:40, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I've corrected it so that the article class is automatically set to the same for all projects with assessments. At the moment, the only child project with an importance assessment is NASCAR, so that's the only one you can set an importance for in the template. Should I add the ability to add importance for all WikiProjects? If so, we'll need to create some categories. By the way, this is not finished yet, and there is no consensus yet so I'd like to suggest that nothing happens at least until there is more discussion and a vote taken. Readro 17:25, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

You could do that, but the Wikipedia Bot would not realise this unless all articles are under a certain Motorsport category e.g. Category:Mid-importance motorsport articles. If you put it in Cateogory:Mid-importance Formula One articles, but not the Motorsport category, the bot will automatically miss it, even if it is listed as a sub-category. What that means is that the article will not be counted. Davnel03 17:29, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

It would put them in the motorsport and respective WikiProject categories. Readro 17:35, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Yep, you would have to have them all in the Motorsport category, so the bot can count them. See the assessment page if you don't get what I mean. Davnel03 17:36, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

I do get what you mean. The template is already set up to put them all in the motorsport category. Readro 17:47, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

That's alright, then. Looking at this discussion, it looks like that the vast majority of people like this template (including me!!!). Anyway, I've set up a consensus, in case anyone dislikes it or has any queries on it. Davnel03 17:50, 7 March 2007 (UTC)

Like Template

1. It is a great idea, I opposed the idea of having multiple templates on each page, but this one is excellent. James086^Talk 12:52, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
2. A great way consolidate multiple child projects into one template. Lessens talk page clutter/overload. Royalbroil ^T : C 13:28, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
3. Much better than the current confusion. 4u1e 19:59, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

Dislike Template

Comments

1. Is the bottom bit going to have a small "hide" link that mades the bottom collapse. See Template:Formula One World Drivers' Champions as ab example.--Skully Collins ^Edits 13:50, 8 March 2007 (UTC)
2. I think we still need to decide whether Motorsport, F1 etc article figures are totted up separately though 4u1e 19:59, 17 March 2007 (UTC)
3. I also think this vote needs to show support from all the WikiProjects involved. 4u1e 20:00, 17 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Jyrki vs. JJ

Should Jyrki Järvilehto be moved to JJ Lehto per WP:COMMONNAME? It's the only motorsport bio I could find that didn't conform. Spyder_Monkey (Talk) 00:17, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Definitely. You will have to make it J. J. Lehto, though, because of Wikipedia:Naming conventions (people). All of us at WikiProject NASCAR tried to argue for no space in the case of J.J. Yeley (as he has it on his official website). We were strongarmed by people with no sense of humor and required to use the space even though it is a guideline. Royalbroil ^T : C 03:26, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

I did a quick google search, and almost everywhere referred to him even without the periods. Surely that would make that spelling the most common name, and therefore the article title? I'll admit, it's not a huge deal, but it seems like "JJ" should be the article name. --Spyder_Monkey (Talk) 05:24, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

We also googled Yeley, and found JJ to be the common spelling. [3] It didn't matter. We also argued that JJ is his nickname (so it is not an abbreviation). We just decided to go along with it. There does have to be some standard in Wikipedia, even if it creates incorrect/awkward situations. I would have thought that a redirect from the Wikipedia standard scheme would be enough, but I've already made it a bigger deal than it should be. Royalbroil ^T : C 14:18, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

Well, I went ahead and moved it to JJ. If they come along and move it somewhere else, I won't fight it.--Spyder_Monkey (Talk) 05:19, 11 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Drivers with multiple infoboxes

For drivers with multiple infoboxes (e.g. Emanuele Pirro, JJ Lehto, etc), do we want to suppress the display of the driver's name and/or nationality in the second (and subsequent) infoboxes? Or are we happy for the duplicate information to remain visible? I don't have strong feeling either way, but I thought it might be good to get agreement before we have too many drivers with multiple infoboxes. DH85868993 03:24, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

I'm still toying with the Le Mans template, if there's a way to make the name and nationality data optional I'll put it in. The359 03:37, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't we have a template similar to that of Template:WikiProjectBanners which puts all the infoboxes into one collaspe-able box?--Skully Collins ^Edits 07:51, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

If someone can do it, I'd say go for it. The359 08:11, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Couldn't you just make nationality be an optional field, and not use it on the second infobox? Royalbroil ^T : C 13:56, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

That's actually what I meant - sorry if that wasn't clear. The359, see "Base" in template:F1 constructor for an example of how to make an optional field. -- DH85868993 14:44, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

OK, I think I've gotten it fixed. The359 00:51, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

You were clear, I simply missed it. Sorry. I had been thinking along the same lines obviously. Royalbroil ^T : C 17:36, 12 March 2007 (UTC)

Sorry guys. I just had a bit of a brain storm during one of my Electronics Lectures (We were watching a boring video about AC Motors, what else am I supposed to do?). Anyway, I though we could have an optional field on all Motorsport relevant Biographical infoboxes to make them hide-able. I think it would work like this:

• A Infobox relevant to the disipline s/he is most notable for being in (most likely either Formula One, IRL or NASCAR). This however would exclude active drivers, in their case the current series they are doing will be the Infobox.
• The other infobox disiplines the driver has done will be hide-able in the appropriate section of the article.

I'll try and do a quick (rough) example of what it would look like soon to try and give you a better understanding.--Phill ^{talk Edits} 12:20, 13 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Category rename?

Currently, Category:Auto racing is the main parent category with most of its subcategories called "Auto racing something." But there are a few exceptions. Category:Motor racing by year and all of its subcategories start with "Motor racing" as does Category:Motor racing venues (the reasoning behind the latter is that most of the venues can support both motorcycles and cars, so it is named that to avoid having seperate categories for motorcycle venues and car venues). There is also Category:Motorsport by country. My question to you guys is whether you would like to see all of categories under a parent category called Category:Motorsport (which would then include categories about motorcycles, and possibly other types of racing that involve motors like boats or airplanes) or would you rather leave it as is, and just change the subcategories above to reflect the current parent category. Getting these kind of naming changes made is always difficult because of the UK/US language barrier, but I think it would help if this project could come to some sort of rough consensus at least, before I take it to WP:CFD. Recury 15:27, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

I assumed it to be a cultural/semantic difference. Presumably, the creator of that category uses/used American English. With regard to your question; If I were asked to choose, I would generally prefer to maintain some separation between two- and four-wheeled motor racing, even without dealing with other forms of transport that can be raced. Adrian M. H. 18:28, 14 March 2007 (UTC)

How about making Motorsport be the parent category for all motor racing articles, and make auto racing, motorcycle racing be child categories. Category:Motorcycle sport would need to be moved below Category:Motorsport under my suggestion. Mixed categories like Motorsport by country would also be directly under Motorsport. Here's my proposed structure using bullet levels:

• • • Motorsport
      • Auto Racing
        • Auto racing equipment
        • Auto racing organizations
        • Other Auto Racing child categories
      • Motorcycle sport
        • Motorcycle racing films
      • Motorsport by country
      • Motor racing by year
      • Other mixed motorsport categories

You would avoid needing to have a CFD if you used my proposed structure. I would prefer to have the blessing of WikiProject Grand Prix motorcycle racing before we make this switch, as they are affected the most. Royalbroil ^T : C 02:53, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

• That makes sense to me. The only thing is that I don't necessarily think all the ones that are mixed now should be and that all the ones that are seperate now should be. Like Category:Auto racing terms is right now "seperate" in name, but the vast majority of articles in there would fit just as well in a category called Category:Motorsport terms because things like chicanes and drafting apply just as much to motorcycles as they do to automobiles. Going the other way, I don't really see any need for Category:Motor racing by year to combine articles on motorcycle and automobile racing since they are by series and there wouldn't be any overlap. Recury 19:23, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

Yea, there would need to be someone looking through the articles in the category to see what makes sense. It sounds appropriate to rename Auto Racing terms to Motorsport terms. I'm bet there are other oddities. Would you please take a look at the current structure to see what you think should be changed/restructured? Royalbroil ^T : C 04:07, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sport governing body

I stumbled across this article today, which - while not motorsport-specific - would be of interest to this project. It is in need of a major overhaul, so I wondered if anyone would be able to contribute to it? Adrian M. H. 19:02, 15 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] A1 GP WikiProject

Hi,

I was just looking through a few of the Motorsport projects, and this project looks, well an absolute mess if I'm to put it at that! Many pages in the project need updating, including race results and other things, take this race page for example. Yes the race took place late February, but no one seems to of put any information in. The project looks severely inactive. I would do it my self, but I'm not use to race tables (plus I'm working on 1995 Formula One season), that kind of stuff. If you can help, that's great as the many pages look scruffy and very out of date. Davnel03 19:40, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

Maybe a message should also be left on the A1GP WikiProject talk page, since the people who work on it are more likely to see it there? As for the project itself, I don't know, I haven't looked into it too much. The359 19:51, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

It holds no interest for me, I must admit, and I think that a project about just one second-tier championship is too narrow in focus. It might be sensible to propose that it is merged with this, its parent project, and given some separate focus in the tasks area. Adrian M. H. 20:50, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

As someone who has worked within the project I agree entirely and someone does need to "fill in the blanks". Unless someone else picks it up I will get on to it within the next week. Regarding the project itself I agree with Adrian M.H. - I feel this is really too narrow for a project in its own right and has a lot of parralells to the Speedway Grand Prix series of articles. They need organising and collecting but are not deserving of a whole project to themselves. Jsydave 12:10, 23 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Sub-page for A1GP and other subjects

If no-one has any objections, I will create a sub-page for significant subjects (WTCC, DTM and so on) that do not have or need their own projects. I'll think up some content that will be useful to anyone who wants to work on those topics. If you have any thoughts about what you'd like to see there, please chip in.
If the people who run the A1GP project are happy to merge it, then we can include that as well. Unless someone has done so already, I'll propose the idea on that project's talk page. Adrian M. H. 16:07, 27 March 2007 (UTC)