Talk:1990 British Grand Prix

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This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as stub, and the rating on other projects was brought up to Stub class. BetacommandBot 05:51, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Mansell's retirement announcement

I firmly believe that Mansell's retirement announcement *should* be mentioned in the lead, and User:SSSB firmly believes it shouldn't.

Obviously, an edit war is not the solution here, nor is allowing the proverbial red mist to descend. On the other hand, it would be good to get the opinions of other users - and the way to do that is, of course, to start a discussion.

I believe Mansell's announcement *should* be mentioned in the lead, because even if it didn't occur *during* the race it *did* occur during the race weekend (indeed, more or less immediately after the race) *and* at the track (as opposed to, say, his home or London), and turned out to be pretty much the biggest talking point of the weekend (more so than Prost's victory or anything else that happened in the race), especially as it also came as a shock to many.

SSSB says that no matter when Mansell made this announcement, it would have been dominant news anyway. *That* certainly can't be denied; it was also dominant news when he made the same announcement at Monza two years later (and on that occasion, before the race rather than after it). However, SSSB then goes on to argue that it's only relevant if the events of the race contributed to it - I absolutely respect this view, but unfortunately I feel that even if it can't be proven that the events of the race played a part there should still be *some* leeway for including it in the lead.

Even I have to say that it's true that we'll probably never know for sure if Mansell's retirement from the race prompted him to make his announcement more or less immediately afterwards. That said, it can't be denied that it *is* plausible - he was, of course, already peed off about not getting the same treatment from the Ferrari team as Prost (or so he felt), and who can seriously say that retiring from his home race, having taken pole position and led for a good bit of it, did not make him even more peed off? None of *this* is relevant to the article at all, obviously - but the fact *does* remain, and always will, that Mansell made his announcement before the weekend was over and before he'd left Silverstone, and it came out of the blue and was more talked about than anything else that happened at Silverstone during the weekend.

(If it turns out that there are better places for this discussion, feel free to move it accordingly. :))

2A02:8084:F1BE:9180:95E3:77C2:7520:58A5 (talk) 01:00, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

You have covered my arguement fairly well but I'd like to expand on it and clarify some points. Firstly, it can out of the blue for the public, but not (necessarily) to him. He could have made the decision days or even weeks in advance and simply decided to announce it at his home race. To suggest he made the decision at that race, due to the events of that race is original research at best (I may reconider if there is a non-WP:SPS which suggests it is relevant).

I absoultly reject the arguement that Mansell being peed-off about his race retirement contributed to this statement, this is an era when car reliability was poor. If he was peed off with Ferrari, he would have just announced he was leaving the team, surely? I think the most likly explanition of Mansell anouncing his retirement at Silverstone was that the decision had been made in the days/weeks beforehand and Mansell wanted to announce in front of the home crowd. But any arguement about what prompted Mansell to retirement is original research and should therefore be ignored.

This article discusses the 1990 British Grand Prix as an event, any announcements that were made during the event are, to me, only relevant to an encylopedic article on the event if the event contributed to the announcement.
SSSB (talk) 11:21, 7 March 2021 (UTC)

I still think it would be good to seek the opinions of other users - whether or not they believe that Mansell's announcement should be mentioned in the lead (without anything resembling OR, obviously).

So I'm going to give a few shoutouts: User:DH85868993, User:A7V2, User:Tvx1, User:MWright96.

Of course, no other user is actually obliged to give an opinion, or contribute to this discussion in any way. If they feel it's not worth their time, I absolutely respect that. :)

2A02:8084:F1BE:9180:194A:2A56:958E:D84F (talk) 02:13, 8 March 2021 (UTC)

• I'd say it is definitely something which is worth mentioning in the article, but probably not in the lead. Regardless of how much the race itself influenced Mansell's decision (if at all), the announcement was part of the event, and an important part looking at how it was seen at the time. From Maurice Hamilton's British Grand Prix (revised edition, published in 1990 not long after the 1990 race), in the chapter covering 1990: "As Prost received his trophy amid scenes of British pomp and ceremony, Nigel Mansell was stealing the headlines in a quiet corner of the paddock. With surprisingly little drama he announced his intention to retire at the end of the season. The 1990 British Grand Prix had been his last.". So then I think it belongs either at the end of the "race report" section, or in a new section, something like "Postrace". A7V2 (talk) 03:35, 8 March 2021 (UTC)