Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Motorsport

Referencing

M1GHTY M4VS has been adding various printed works as references to existing articles. Nothing really problematic with it, but what is the purpose? I asked the user on their talk page and received a somewhat hard to comprehend response. The books in question are unlikely to have been used in the writing of the article: 1987 World Rally Championship, for instance, has never been revised by this user before, so how can they add a book they have as a reference? It is one thing if they look up a fact and verify it, or add new content, and provide an inline reference, but just throwing titles in at the end serves no real purpose and is potentially misleading.

If this was to be added, perhaps "further reading" would be more honest. Best,  Mr.choppers | ✎  20:02, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

Does this help from WP:CITETYPE?

A general reference is a citation that supports content, but is not linked to any particular piece of material in the article through an inline citation. General references are usually listed at the end of the article in a References section. They are usually found in underdeveloped articles, especially when all article content is supported by a single source. They may also be listed in more developed articles as a supplement to inline citations.

More at WP:GENREF, maybe 'Sources' should be 'References' with the book listed under 'General References' below the citations. Rally Wonk (talk) 20:55, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

My issue is that the books were unlikely to have been used to develop the article, so including them as a direct reference could be misleading. So, yes, adding it as a "general references" would be much better, but also: The disadvantage of general references is that text–source integrity is lost, unless the article is very short. They are frequently reworked by later editors into inline citations. Even the text on general references appears to assume that the references were used to compile the article.  Mr.choppers | ✎  21:07, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

If nothing else, it gives the topic itself some credibility. Rally Wonk (talk) 21:21, 3 June 2026 (UTC)

I've given lengthy explanation to my reasoning, it appears that way also on articles that need the additional referencing and it is pretty much done that way on the earlier MotoGP seasons because the references given were quite thin between the early internet and down links, and I'v been having issues with my early British Superbike seasons from the 2000s because it isn't generally accepted that the scores that are available are enough. On a technical comparison early World Superbike Championship seasons have had way less references but were accepted, so I scraped to find the de facto book references for them and the Rally Course, Moto Course and Auto Course Books all hold the comprehensive collection and especially the Rally and Motorcycle seasons are thin spread with sources so I have way more reasons for it to be included even without citations because it holds the result tables from the contemporary time and fully warrant the inclusion because the whole subject of the book encompasses those season articles. So if anything I wish them to be restored, include them as bibliography section.

If you look at a very referenced articles like the 1934 Grand Prix season you see them as reference even if they don't all end up quoted. And the references I added are completely on that article subject. M1GHTY M4VS (talk) 12:21, 20 June 2026 (UTC)

Écurie Écosse

It has been proposed that Écurie Écosse be moved to Ecurie Ecosse. Interested editors are welcome to contribute to the discussion. DH85868993 (talk) 23:44, 7 June 2026 (UTC)

Requested move at Talk:Nicolás Varrone#Requested move 8 June 2026

There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Nicolás Varrone#Requested move 8 June 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. BryOn2205U (talk) 13:46, 8 June 2026 (UTC)

Is a class win at Le Mans notable enough?

I was looking at List of female 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers, and I saw that 5/10 drivers with a class win do not have an article. Is a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans notable enough to create an article?

I could probably link this to WikiProject: Women in Red too. GarethBaloney (talk) 10:46, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

I think the short answer here is "depends". Well into the 1970s cars were still divided by engine size and you often got over half a dozen classes — some with few starters and even 0 finishers. The last female class win came in 1978, in the sixth highest class. The last class winner without an article is Robert Smith, a bronze who won GTE Am in 2017 with two absolute stars (Will Stevens and Dries Vanthoor). Ultimately I think you should look to see if the person has significant coverage. A class win helps but doesn't automatically grant notability. MSport1005 (talk) 17:12, 25 June 2026 (UTC)

RfC on Driver Nationalities in Formula 1

I have started an RfC around a local policy on Formula 1 driver nationalities.

The RfC maybe found at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Formula One#RfC on driver nationality. ~2026-34199-65 (talk) 21:18, 25 June 2026 (UTC)