Template talk:Infobox racing driver

message: Shouldn't this be Template:Infobox Racing driver?  --thedemonhog talk • edits 22:08, 10 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Does it really matter? This is navel gazing for Wiki Editors, and will have no effect on how Joe/Jane Public will use the encyclopedia. Pyrope 13:21, 14 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Move 

message: I'm not sure this template can be applied that well to all the pre-WDC racers. Grand Prix racing then consisted of the majority of races not being part of any championship, so how should that be conveyed using this template? Readro 16:58, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: How is it done currently, and with what template? Adrian M. H. 17:15, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There is no template. I've been using the Infobox Biography template. Readro 13:58, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I could add some fields to this (quite easy, though I'm not sure where to place them) and make another pro-forma, but perhaps it might be better if you were to make a dedicated template, depending on exactly what data you want to include and how you want to display it. I'm not aiming for total rationalisation of all the driver infobox templates, because that would just be counter-productive. Adrian M. H. 14:56, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Pre-F1 racing drivers 

message: There's an ambiguoug field on the template "Best finish". I know this template says it should be the championship finish; however, some users will think it is the best race finish (ie - checkered?). I don't know how to solve this, yet, but perhaps others know of a way to make this more clear? ZueJay (talk) 00:52, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: There is nothing really ambiguous about that for anyone who is knowledgeable about motorsport, and all they need to do is look at the pro-forma. It is the same term that we have always used, partly because of the width constraints. I tend to check each new use of the template to look out for formatting issues anyway, so I am likely to spot any mistakes. Adrian M. H. 10:18, 30 August 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: How many users are knowledgeable about this kind of thing? Not enough. Truly, this encyclopedia is best used as a tool for understaning the basics (and finding references for more detail), users should not be expected to have prior knowledge of a subject before entering any single article. Thus, for those users without the proper background, this is an ambiguous field. I know there's a Championship, but the first time I saw this field, I thought for sure it was highest single race finish, not championship - and I'm certainly not any sort of lame-brain. Your response does not bring resolution to the problem, it just tells me why ya'll have never changed it. Can this perhaps be a wikilinked field to disambiguate the text? I'm not sure what it would be wikilinked to, but that might assist resolution. ZueJay (talk) 16:30, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Anyone who adds templates such as this to relevant articles will be doing so with some knowledge of motorsport, or they would have no need of such a template. Without some knowledge, they are not in a position to know whether anything that they add is suitable (not just in the template) and they would not have any particular interest in adding a template in such circumstances. You wouldn't find me doing anything other than basic typo/grammar fixing in a mathematics article, for example. There really is no issue here. I could change the field name in the code to make it clear for you, but if any field names don't match the displayed titles, I get other editors complaining and I'm not going over that old ground again. Adrian M. H. 18:32, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: It is not about me, it is not about editors - it is about users. Not all users understand that that is a Championship field; I'm looking for solutions/suggestions on how to disambiguate this field and alleviate confusion among users - I'm not looking for a brick wall. ZueJay (talk) 21:26, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: By "users" do you mean readers? If so, say so. So you don't think that your average motorsport fan will understand that "Best finish: 3rd in 2005" means exactly the same here as it does in the info panels of just about every English-language motorsport periodical in print? If they are not motorsport fans, why would they want to know about Ricardo Risatti or Sebastian Buemi? Besides, we are limited by infobox width, unless you want to overturn the decision taken earlier this year (with which I agree) that all motorsport infoboxes should be 24em. We have no room for lengthy field titles (particularly unnecessary ones). Adrian M. H. 22:12, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes, a user is the same as a "reader"; I prefer the term user because being an Internet user is a bit more active than being a reader, which is passive; this whole matter of clicking on links, typing things in searches, implies usage not just reading. Now, what's to say that your average user is a motorsports fan? Do you look up articles about politicians? Are you a politics fan? Do you look up articles about authors? Are you an author fan? Do you look up articles about sandwiches? Are you a sandwich fan? You look up articles to learn something. I do not believe the width should be changed, I think you all are quite right in that; it is already a "wide" box, relatively speaking. I do think that wikilinking the field "Best finish" to a descriptive article (there must be one with regards to "racing championship" or some such) would be useful in clarifiying the field, and is probably the best way to disambiguate it at this point. I really don't think the accesibility we provide users/readers in these articles is irrelevant. Information in Wikipedia is not just for us, only editors, or only fans, its for everybody. Why wouldn't we want to make it accessible and comprehensible to the average person no matter their fanatic inclinations? ZueJay (talk) 23:00, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Since you asked, I hardly ever use WP as a reference source (that may change if the world runs out of paper any time soon), but when I do, my readings are confined to things in which I am interested and at least adequately knowledgeable. There is nothing precisely relevant to which the field title may be linked. Adrian M. H. 23:17, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Most editors seem not to use it as a particularly strong reference; I tend to only use it for non-technical (ie - pop culture) and a place to look for outside references. I realize now that there seems no particularly ideal article for such a link - I made an article request for Championship racing or something similar that can discuss a bit all those series with championship races; it is a very popular, common term/element in motorsport that makes sense to have an article for (or at least a list); I know only enough about motorsport to watch it competently and discuss it with others but not actually write articles. ZueJay (talk) 23:26, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Better to post that at WikiProject Motorsport/Tasks. It will get a quicker result. Adrian M. H. 23:34, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks. Will do. ZueJay (talk) 23:45, 1 September 2007 (UTC)

text: All we really need to do here is change the label of the field to "best season finish".  There have been several cases lately where this has been changed to reflect the best race finish of a particular driver.  I think that one word here will clarify.  --rogerd (talk) 12:22, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Even shorter would be "best series finish", maybe, in terms of width. ZueJay (talk) 03:28, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: BTW, List of motorsport championships was the result of a prior suggestion. ZueJay (talk) 03:52, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Ambiguous field

message: I noticed that this template's outer border is bright red in IE6. It looks fine in other browsers. There was a redundant hex colour value (#FF0000) in the style declaration, but removing it and clearing my cache has made no difference. The correct #dfdfdf colour value is still there and should be being picked up by IE. Can anyone look into this please? 83.67.34.115 (talk) 13:14, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: It's OK now. I figured out that IE does not like CSS shortcuts if the colour is placed first. 83.67.34.115 (talk) 17:08, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Border shows red in IE6 

message: Um, I was just looking at the template now that the red border in IE has been fixed, and what I see is that all these race car drivers are dead when utilizing the standard applied to Template:Infobox actor and Template:Infobox musical artist (gold=alive, silver/gray=dead). Not good. I would suggest a change, but to what color, I'm not sure. The gold of those infoboxes might be okay, or maybe a shade of blue. Options can be viewed at WP:Color. ZueJay (talk) 21:56, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: For clarification, it is great the red border was fixed. Now, though, the solid gray background is more prominent and it immediately made me think of the infobox style used at Template:Infobox actor which distinguishes between "living" and "deceased" persons, in part, by shading the infobox differently for those states: gold and gray, respectively. Maybe some will not see this as an issue, but we could create greater consistency, unity, etc. across the wiki by addressing this issue. ZueJay (talk) 22:22, 10 August 2008 (UTC)

text: Okay. That's why I check before making changes, and why feedback to a question, not matter how inane the question might seems, is always useful. ZueJay (talk) 23:17, 10 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Silver background means dead 

message: Despite this notice, the hCard microformat in this template was removed in this edit. Could someone who understands the aims of that edit please restore the microformat mark-up?  Thank you. Andy Mabbett | Talk to Andy Mabbett 19:03, 20 August 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Broken microformat 

message: The Achievements parameter in the second example appears to not be used. I am not sure if the code is wrong or the parameter was removed.--The Three Headed Knight (talk) 14:24, 4 May 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unused parameter 

message: There's a discussion in progress at WP:MOTOR regarding possible changes to the "previous series" fields of this infobox. You are welcome to express any views you may have on the matter at the discussion. DH85868993 (talk) 03:36, 7 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposed change to previous series fields 

message: This message is to notify you that there is an RfC ongoing on whether to add pronunciation info to , a discussion which may also affect this template. Your comments on the matter are appreciated. The discussion can be found here. Thanks! 0x0077BE (talk · contrib) 17:17, 16 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title: RfC on [[Template talk:Infobox person|Template:Infobox person]]

message: I think it is unhelpful for this template to automatically prepend the current year to the current series heading, for a couple of reasons:
# it doesn't cater for seasons which span year boundaries, e.g. 2014-15 Formula E season (the infobox displays "2015 Formula E")
# if an infobox is not updated for some time, it can present the incorrect information that a driver is competing in the current season, when in fact they are not.
Thoughts? DH85868993 (talk) 11:02, 20 January 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: Your suggestion makes more sense than current protocol. Holdenman05 (talk) 04:26, 21 January 2015 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the current year from the heading and added the word "career", for consistency with the F1, Le Mans, NASCAR and IndyCar infoboxes. DH85868993 (talk) 11:39, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Current series year 

message: Hi all, 
How about to add the FIA Driver Category to categorised drivers, for example: 
Jeroen Bleekemolen, FIA Driver Category: Platinum (2017).
Full list here
Thoughts? Poppo154 (talk) 15:56, 4 December 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: I have advertised this discussion at the Motosport WikiProject. DH85868993 (talk) 08:55, 5 December 2016 (UTC)

text: My only concern is that driver rankings are not static.  Are you proposing that every ranking a driver holds in his career be added to the chart?  Listing only his most recent ranking is a bit of WP:RECENTISM in my mind. The359 (Talk) 18:29, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
replies: text: , is that much different than only including the driver's current team, rather than every one in every championship, as we do now? I don't know if we do need this or not, but I don't think WP:RECENTISM is a problem here. QueenCake (talk) 18:56, 5 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  FIA Driver Categorisation 

message: Please add a field "Racing licence" under a "xx series" field - just like in Template:Infobox WRC driver. In some cases a specific country's racing licence is necesssary to drive that certain series or the matter of age etc. Btw, sometimes the licence is also confused with nationality, which this field helps to avoid. --Pelmeen10 (talk) 22:09, 20 October 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: Not done: please make your requested changes to the template's sandbox first; see WP:TESTCASES. — JJMC89 (T·C) 05:32, 28 October 2018 (UTC)
thread_title: Edit request

message: Template:Tooltip has been deprecated. All transclusions of  on this template should be replaced by . This change has already been carried out for the sandbox.
I also have an identical edit request at  eπi (talk | contribs) 15:23, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Done – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:30, 29 April 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Template-protected edit request on 29 April 2019 

message: Just a minor MOS fix, per MOS:NUMERO could you change:
| label13     = Car no.
to
 | label13     = Car 
Thanks. – Reidgreg (talk) 00:48, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
replies: text: Done Done, sort of. Since the left column has "Championships" and "Former teams" in it, there is plenty of room for "Car number" without a potentially confusing abbreviation that many readers will not understand. I changed "no." to "number".  – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:54, 24 September 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request 

message: At Jamie Chadwick the series "Formula Regional European" is too long to display on a single line, so it breaks after the second word. This means the word "European" lines up with the dates for the next series, "F3 Asian Championship", while the latter lines up with the dates for "MRF Challenge Formula 2000" which is likewise too long. This approach with a pair of lists, where each entry can be of any length, can never line up properly. The template should instead accept  and  parameters and insert them as additional infobox rows. Hairy Dude (talk) 01:04, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Whilst noting that how the contents of the infobox display depends upon the platform/browser being used (for example, the rows in Jamie Chadwick's infobox align correctly on my desktop computer), I agree that we need a better solution that works on all platforms/browsers. As I did nearly 10 years ago. :-) The same also applies to the  and  parameters. I suspect the trickiest bit will be migrating the existing articles to use the new parameters. But that doesn't have to be done immediately, and we could possibly/probably get a bot to assist. DH85868993 (talk) 01:29, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: I replied below with a solution that I think will work, though it renders a bit weird on the mobile wikipedia. You can check the /testcases page to view the changes I made/proposed. Kaictl (talk) 01:18, 28 March 2024 (UTC)

text: Quickest solution would be to use  template with the longest name, so it wouldn't break. Pelmeen10 (talk) 09:26, 13 April 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  {{{prev series years}}} and {{{prev series}}} cannot line up 

message: Hi there! Just wondering if someone could add a label for a driver's "Current car"? I thought it was a bit odd there were labels for both car number and the engine (which is only part of the car), but not the car itself. I'm brand new to wikipedia editing so I have no idea how to do it myself (or if I'm even allowed.) I tried playing around with the sandbox page earlier and realized I was only editing the documentation part of the page instead of the actual parameters themselves, so I think it's best if I leave it to someone else. Thanks for your help! RibenaDrinker (talk) 14:51, 20 January 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request 

message: Right now we're just using an un-bulleted list for each of the key/value pairs, but they're not actually lined up as a table or anything, just two lists side-by-side. This doesn't look good when the rendering makes one column too small for the series name or list of years, as it will go over multiple lines instead of just one, breaking the link between year and series. I propose utilizing the Medal template, as is already set up in the  section of the current template.
As a quick example, I was looking at the Doriane Pin page, and she has one series, the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship, that was taking up 2 lines instead of one, causing problems for the years being shifted up/down.
The solution I saw noted was to add an  element to the list or an extra , but that would break if the user only has it show on one line, and other things could be split if the window is small enough.
We already have a pretty easy solution to this, and that's to make the year/years be a part of each element, instead of a pair of lists. See User:Kaictl/sandbox for an example of this with both modes. The first "Previous series" section is the normal  and  rendering, while the one below is a test using the  section.
By adopting something like  as an argument similar to  we would be able to consistently and properly render the years/series on any device or setting. This would also not break any current pages, as it would be separate from the . See a the conversation two topics above for other users running into this problem. 
This would also add more options for these previous series, such as showing their finishing positions in those series.
Kaictl (talk) 19:31, 25 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: I agree that this is an issue that needs looking into. However, this solution ends up generating a large amount of white space, where the event name ends up with, frankly, excessive padding. Is there a way around this?  SSSB (talk) 17:42, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
replies: text: This seems to be an issue with the mobile sites rendering of the medals template, the spacing is about the same in the desktop site. I can look at creating a custom template for this. Kaictl (talk) 18:15, 26 March 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Edit request: Update/secondary {{{prev series}}}, {{{titles}}}, {{{awards}}}