Wikipedia:WikiProject Formula One/Conventions

In addition to the conventions listed on the main WikiProject:Formula One page, this page lists other conventions which are observed through the Project. In the interests of consistency, it is recommended that editors follow these conventions when creating or updating articles.

General

 * In standard article text, the first mention of a driver, team or manufacturer is wikilinked. (Note that in race results tables, all instances of constructor and engine manufacturer are wikilinked, not just the first instance).
 * Red links should not be created for shortlived non-notable spinoff operations, or minor team figures who are only notable for their involvement in that team.
 * References to specific races link to the individual race article, not the generic race article or the town/circuit, e.g. a sentence about the 1991 season might be written: "At the Hungarian Grand Prix, the team introduced a new rear wing and a new spec engine was available for Monza."
 * In most cases, years in F1 articles should link to the article for that year's World Championship, not the generic article for that year, e.g. "1977" is usually linked to 1977 Formula One season, not 1977. The F1 template is useful for this purpose.
 * Most F1-related articles use UK spelling (reflecting Formula One's European origins) unless they are particularly US-related (per WP:ENGVAR). Specifically, "tyre" is used rather than "tire".

Drivers

 * Driver nationality:
 * UK drivers: Should be identified as "British" with the UK flag in the F1 infobox. The lead should contain a statement of the form "Fred Nerk is/was a British (former) Formula One/racing driver from England/Scotland/Wales/Northern Ireland". Refer to discussion here.
 * Drivers from Catalonia: Are identified in the F1 infobox as "Spanish"
 * For drivers with multiple citizenship, the F1 infobox contains the nationality under which they race(d) in F1, while the text details the full situation of their nationalities. Specific examples include:
 * Nico Rosberg is identified in his F1 infobox as "German" (the article text explains that he holds dual nationality for both Germany and Finland and competed for Finland earlier in his career)
 * Romain Grosjean is identified in his F1 infobox as "French" (the article text explains that he holds dual French and Swiss nationality)
 * Pascal Wehrlein is identified in his F1 infobox as "German" (the article text explains that he holds dual German and Mauritian nationality)
 * Max Verstappen is identified in his F1 infobox as "Dutch" (the article text explains that he holds dual Dutch and Belgian nationality)
 * Lance Stroll is identified in his F1 infobox as "Canadian" (the article text explains that he holds dual Canadian and Belgian nationality)
 * Lando Norris is identified in his F1 infobox as "British" (the article text explains that he holds both British and Belgian citizenship)
 * Robert Doornbos raced in F1 as "Monegasque" in 2005 and "Dutch" in 2006. See discussion.
 * Bertrand Gachot raced as "Belgian" in 1989–1991 and "French" in 1992, 1994–1995 (the article's text explains that he only held French citizenship).
 * Driver naming:
 * Michael May's first name is written as "Michael" rather than "Michel"
 * Alex Zanardi is identified as "Alessandro Zanardi" in F1-related articles
 * Max Papis is identified as "Massimiliano Papis" in F1-related articles
 * JJ Lehto is identified as "JJ Lehto" in F1-related articles, not "Jyrki Järvilehto"
 * Drivers are included in both "Category: Formula One drivers" and "Category: racing drivers" (e.g. Alain Prost is included in both and ) even though the former category is a subcategory of the latter, per this discussion.
 * Only drivers who have been entered for a Formula One race are included in "Category: Formula One drivers". Test/development drivers or drivers who have only participated in F1 race meetings as "third/Friday drivers", or people who have just driven a Formula One car at some point (e.g. Valentino Rossi) are not included.
 * For drivers who have participated as "third/Friday drivers", the seasons in which they competed and the teams they drove for as third/Friday drivers are included in their infobox but the races in which they acted as third/Friday drivers are not included in First/Last race – see Franck Montagny as an example.
 * Period flagicons are used, e.g. 🇿🇦 is used for Jody Scheckter, not 🇿🇦
 * The "Teams" field in a driver's infobox is actually populated with a list of the chassis makes the driver drove, rather than a list of teams for which they drove. So, Alain Prost's infobox contains "Teams: McLaren, Renault, Ferrari, Williams", rather than "Teams: Marlboro Team McLaren, Equipe Renault Elf, Marlboro McLaren International, Honda Marlboro McLaren, Scuderia Ferrari, Canon Williams Renault". The main rationale for this is to keep the information in the infobox concise, noting that the team names are listed in the driver's F1 results table.
 * We don't include statements of the form " is considered by some/many to be (one of) the greatest Formula One driver(s) of all time." See discussions: 1, 2 (there are possibly others)

Team/Entrants/Constructors

 * References to the Ligier team or cars should link to Équipe Ligier, rather than Ligier.
 * The chassis used by the Modena team in 1991 is written as "Lambo", but linked to Modena (racing team).
 * The Politoys, Iso–Marlboro and Wolf–Williams teams/constructors are covered by Frank Williams Racing Cars and Template:Frank Williams Racing Cars and do not require their own articles/navboxes. Refer discussion.
 * References to Williams cars before 1976 (including Politoys and Iso–Marlboro) link to Frank Williams Racing Cars; Williams cars from 1978 onwards link to Williams Grand Prix Engineering.
 * References to Wolf–Williams cars of 1976 link to Frank Williams Racing Cars (or the redirect Wolf–Williams Racing)
 * References to the 1960s ATS team and cars link to Automobili Turismo e Sport; references to the 1970s/1980s ATS team and cars link to ATS (wheels).
 * References to the Renault team and cars (1977–1985, 2002–2011, 2016–2020) link to Renault in Formula One, not Renault Sport, as discussed here.
 * References to Honda F1 cars and the racing team link to Honda in Formula One, rather than Honda. (But references to the parent company should be linked to Honda, e.g. when describing that Honda owns Suzuka).
 * References to the Hesketh team and cars link to Hesketh Racing rather than Hesketh.
 * References to the Tyrrell team and cars link to Tyrrell Racing rather than Tyrrell.
 * References to the Alfa Romeo team and cars link to Alfa Romeo in Formula One.
 * References to the Maserati team and cars link to Maserati in motorsport.
 * References to the Ferrari team and cars link to Scuderia Ferrari rather than Ferrari.
 * References to the Matra cars and works Matra team link to Equipe Matra Sports rather than Matra. References to Ken Tyrrell's 1968/69 "Matra International" team link to Tyrrell Racing (sometimes via the Matra International redirect).
 * References to the Mercedes-Benz team and cars (1954–1955) link to Mercedes-Benz in Formula One.
 * References to the Mercedes team and cars (2010 onwards) also link to Mercedes-Benz in Formula One.
 * References to Lotus (1958–1994) F1 cars, including non-works entries, link to Team Lotus, rather than Lotus Cars.
 * References to the Aston Martin team or cars of 1959-60 and 2021 onwards should link to Aston Martin in Formula One, rather than Aston Martin.
 * Team Lotus (1958–1994), Team Lotus (2010–11), and Lotus F1 are all considered as separate entities.
 * In team/constructor navbox templates and infoboxes, flags are only included for drivers and the team/constructor, i.e. flags are not included for team personnel.
 * In team/constructor infoboxes, only permanently-assigned driver numbers are listed, e.g. in this revision of Alpine F1 Team, the driver number is listed for Daniil Kvyat because (for now) it's still his permanent number, even though he doesn't have a race seat in 2021. However no number is listed for Guanyu Zhou because the number he used in practice for the 2021 Austrian GP (37) was a temporarily assigned number, which might be used by another driver at a different race.
 * Up to 2013 (except 2011), Red Bull Racing's cars are referred to as "Red Bulls" (not "RBRs") and the constructor name is written as "Red Bull- ". For 2011, and from 2014 onwards, the constructor name is usually written as "Red Bull Racing- ". Related discussions may be found: here, here and here.
 * Before 2018, Scuderia Toro Rosso's cars are referred to as "Toro Rossos" (not "STRs") and the constructor name is written as "Toro Rosso- ". From 2018 onwards, the cars are identified as "Scuderia Toro Rosso STRxx" and listed in entry/results tables as "Scuderia Toro Rosso- " (although they're sometimes referred to as just "Toro Rossos" in text).
 * The cars run by the Copersucar-Fittipaldi team are identified as "Fittipaldis", not "Copersucars".
 * References to the Haas/Lola team link to Haas Lola, but references to the "Lola" cars link to Lola Cars (often via the redirect Lola Racing Cars).
 * The dash between the chassis make and the engine make (e.g. in McLaren-Mercedes) was decided to be styled as a hyphen, not an en-dash – refer discussion.

Team/Entrant/Constructor nationality

 * Jordan is considered to be Irish
 * Benetton raced with a British licence from 1986 to 1995 and an Italian licence from 1996 to 2001
 * Virgin raced with a British licence in 2010 and a Russian one in 2011
 * Renault raced with a French licence from 1977 to 1985 and 2002 to 2010, a British licence in 2011 and a French licence from 2016 to 2020
 * Sauber raced with a Swiss licence from 1993 to 2005, a German licence (as BMW Sauber) from 2006 to 2009 and a Swiss license from 2010 to 2018
 * There was dispute over the nationality of Eagle, Penske, Shadow and Wolf teams – this has now been resolved as follows:
 * Eagle was American
 * Penske was American
 * Shadow had an American licence from 1973 to 1975 and a British one from 1976 to 1980
 * Wolf was Canadian (This discussion in December 2014 suggested that they possibly raced as both Canadian and British at different times (Canadian in 1977, British in 1978–79?). However this discussion in April 2016 concluded that the evidence for Wolf being British was pretty weak and all relevant articles were updated to reflect Wolf as being Canadian only).

Engines/Power units

 * Ford/Cosworth. The following engines are referred to as "Fords" and linked to Ford Motor Company:
 * 406 (1966)
 * DFV/DFY/DFZ/DFR (1967–91)
 * GBA (1986–87)
 * HB (1989–94)
 * EC (1994–97)
 * ED (1995–97)
 * VJ (1997–2001)
 * JD (1998)
 * CR-1 (1999)
 * RS1 (2003)
 * RS2 (2004)
 * The following engines are referred to as "Cosworths" and linked to Cosworth:
 * CR-2/3/4/5/6 (2000–2004)
 * TJ (2005–06)
 * CK (2005)
 * CA (2006, 2010–2013)
 * references to Lamborghini engines (1989–1993) link to Lamborghini, not Modena (racing team).
 * references to Renault engines link to Renault in Formula One (often via redirect Renault F1), not Renault Sport, as discussed here.
 * references to Honda engines link to Honda in Formula One (often via redirect Honda Racing F1), rather than Honda.
 * references to Alfa Romeo engines (including those supplied to other teams) link to Alfa Romeo in Formula One.
 * references to Ferrari engines (including those supplied to other teams) link to Scuderia Ferrari.
 * references to Maserati engines (including those supplied to other teams) link to Maserati in motorsport.
 * references to Mercedes engines (since 1994) link to Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (often via redirect Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines).
 * the engines used by McLaren from late 1983 to 1987 are called "TAG" (i.e. as opposed to "Porsche" or "TAG Porsche" or "TAG/Porsche" etc) and are wikilinked to Techniques d'Avant Garde
 * references to Peugeot engines link to Peugeot (i.e. not Peugeot or Peugeot)
 * references to Matra engines (including those supplied to other teams) link to Equipe Matra Sports.
 * references to Petronas engines link to Sauber Petronas Engineering per this discussion.
 * references to Mugen-Honda engines link to Mugen-Honda (a redirect to Mugen Motorsports), rather than separately linking "Mugen" to Mugen Motorsports and "Honda" to Honda Racing F1. This is done so that if the place where the Mugen-Honda engines is described ever changes, we only have to update the redirect.
 * references to the Acer engines used by Prost Grand Prix in 2001 link to Acer (engine) rather than Acer Inc. (or the relevant section of Acer Inc. – because the name of this section changes frequently; if all references link to the redirect, then every time the section changes name, we only need to update the redirect)
 * the engines used by Osella in 1988 are identified as "Osella" engines, not Alfa Romeos, so the constructor (i.e. make+engine) is just "Osella". Refer to this discussion.
 * the engines used by Sauber in 1993 are identified as "Sauber" engines, not Ilmors, so the constructor (i.e. make+engine) is just "Sauber". Refer to this discussion.
 * the engines used by Red Bull Racing in 2016–2018 are considered to be "TAG Heuers", not "Renaults", and are linked to TAG Heuer.
 * the engines used by Toro Rosso in 2017 are considered to be "Toro Rossos", not "Renaults", so the constructor (i.e. make+engine) is just "Toro Rosso".
 * "Honda", "RBPT" and "Honda RBPT" are considered as distinct engine/power unit suppliers and their statistics are not aggregated.

Cars

 * McLaren "MP4/x" chassis are denoted with a "/" up to and including McLaren MP4/15, and with a "-" from McLaren MP4-16 onwards, per this discussion
 * The car used by the Modena team in 1991 is called a "Lambo 291"
 * In F1 car infoboxes, flags are only included for drivers, not for team personnel or the constructor

Race abbreviations

 * as specified here

Driver/constructor career summary tables

 * as specified here

Race result tables

 * as specified here

Race report articles

 * "Notes" sections should be avoided, per WP:TRIVIA – information should included in the article text.
 * Free practice times are not included, per this discussion.

Grand Prix articles
(e.g. French Grand Prix)
 * The winners table finishes with the last occasion on which the race was held, not with a "Not held" row. Refer discussion.
 * The flagicon at the top of the infobox is the flag of the country in which the most recent circuit to host the event is located and is not necessarily related to the race title, e.g. in Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the Italian flag is shown since the most recent circuit to host the event (Imola) is located in Italy. This convention was arrived at following numerous extensive discussions (at least here, here and here – there may be others).

Circuit articles

 * Circuit articles should not contain a list of Grand Prix winners. See discussions here and here.

Season summary articles

 * From 2014 onwards (when permanent driver numbers were introduced), the "Teams and Drivers" tables are ordered alphabetically by constructor name.
 * The flags under the race abbreviations in the Drivers' and Constructors' Championship tables are the flags of the countries in which the circuits are located, not necessarily related to the race titles. For example, in 2000 Formula One season, the flag under "SMR" (i.e. the abbreviation for the San Marino Grand Prix), is the Italian flag since the circuit which hosted the race (Imola) is located in Italy. This convention was arrived at following numerous extensive discussions (at least here, here and here and here – there may be others).
 * Teams and drivers are not added to upcoming season summary articles until a reliable source confirms their intended participation, e.g. by official announcement of a driver or engine contract for the season.

Restarted races and other disputed results
When races are restarted, different sources sometimes disagree over whether drivers who were present at the first start, but not at the second start should be listed as "Ret" (retired) or "DNS" (did not start). There are also numerous other races where different sources disagree as to specific individual race results. Here is the list.

And why does it matter whether a driver is listed as "Ret" or "DNS"? Because each race result is recorded in numerous articles: the race report, the season summary, the driver's article, the article containing the team's results and the car article (if one exists). And because it affects the driver's number of starts, it also affects List of Formula One drivers and possibly List of Formula One driver records.

Miscellaneous

 * As a general rule, the talk pages of articles about video games based on Formula One are not tagged with WPF1.
 * Drivers and constructors who have competed in the current season are highlighted in bold in many of the Formula One "list" and " Grand Prix" articles. The text used to explain the bolding is of the form "Drivers/constructors who have competed in the YYYY season are highlighted in bold". The terminology "Drivers/constructors who have competed" is deliberately used instead of "Drivers/constructors who are competing..." or "Current drivers/constructors..." to avoid ambiguity over whether drivers who are replaced mid-season, or constructors who withdraw mid-season are still "competing" or "current" later in the season.