Lance Armstrong is a great example on how long it can take to discover an illegal substance within the body, considering F1 is a much richer sport than Cycling one has to wonder if the current crop of F1 drivers are open to the advantages of these drugs as everything in F1 seems to be the biggest cheaters will always win, (no direct person pointed at). With many grey areas in F1 the mind set of F1 is to use it until it becomes banned or find another way around it to keep that advantage for a little bit longer. It doesn't seem unlikely that they would also use biological grey areas to help their driver perform better than humanly possible. (Vettel, Alonso, Lewis, Kimi, Button, Schumacher, Senna, Mika, Hill, Mansell, Piquet, Villeneuve, Prost etc...) could all be suspects of drug cheating in F1 in the past and present within their career. How would you feel if it was discovered 4-5 years down the line that somebody like Senna or Schumacher were discovered to have used advanced performance enhancing drugs that took up until now to discover traces of it. ----- If I found out that Vettel had taken performance enhancing drugs I would in all honesty not really care that much as I would then know for a fact that it's present through the whole F1 grid and teams like Mercedes and Ferrari with all their money would pop up as the next suspects. A lot of cheating happens in F1 to win the world title and there is no such thing as a "Honest" Winner or Loser in F1. I believe anybody who says differently is just living in denial as sport in reality is more about money and victory than fans and honour.
So Alonso must be the biggest drugs cheat of all time since he says he is fighting Newey and not Vettel
Drivers are all tested for the same banned substances as normal athletes. I am disappointed at your comments that you wouldn't look differently if Vettel was found to be taking banned substances. As it would undermine their personal integrity to such a high level, I wouldn't be able to look at them in the same way again.
I find it a bit ironic that you talk abut living in denial in that very same paragraph when I don't buy at all that you wouldn't view Vettel differently. You live in denial that Hamilton and Webber beat him on Top Gear, perish the thought he could be a drug cheat! (If this sounds like an attack on you it's not, it's just a tad weird to me)
You become desensitized to "cheating" in F1 when every engineers job is to cheat and gain an advantage over the competition, drivers are part of that system as well and that mindset of their respected teams would of rubbed off sooner or later to the driver and their trainers if extra form is to be found. If you can gain an advantage through machinery "legally" to then become "illegal", why not biologically as well? One form of advantage is encouraged but the other is not, this is one of those double standards I laugh at the public sometimes.
Fair comment but that's your opinion that I wouldn't. I'm a bit more heartless than I make out, I might be a Superfan of Seb, but I couldn't care less what personal **** storms he would subject himself to because that is his problem and not mine etc...
I'm not sure how I'd feel... I guess it would depend on who it was and the extent of the use. If it was somebody that I don't really care for that had little impact on the sport then i'd likely not care. If it was a multiple WDC or icon like a Senna, Prost, Clark, Schumacher, Vettel etc then I'd be angry as they'd have Armstronged F1, calling in to question every winner. If it was a driver I support, I'd feel cheated and disappointed. And I'd have to withdraw my support. If it was more widespread throughout the sport, then I'd be more angry at the FIA for not getting on top of it. Good question though.... lets hope it's not an issue.
I don't agree with this so much... F1 is about out-engineering your opponents and pushing the boundaries. It's an arms race (or should be), so we're not desensitized to cheating, but we expect some mucking about in the grey areas.
I wouldn't care less tbh, it's pretty well known that James Hunt was a notorious coke-head, has it lessen his legacy? let them take whatever they want, it's their body. The thing I find the biggest joke is marijuana, how the hell is it a performance enhancing drug?
In exact words? "****, not you too Max!" followed by anguished tearing down of posters / destruction of official licensed Marussia F1 merchandise / deflation of Chilton realdoll.
With time to kill, I can have a bit of fun to illustrate my point… In all seriousness, this is an interesting thread, SAINZ. The discussion is perhaps overdue. However, I find your conclusion a little odd: I will ask the obvious question: How does discovery of one cheat prove all others to be cheats? Applying a similar logic… Does Lance Armstrong's admission tar every Tour de France competitor with the same brush; and if so, is it limited to cycling's road racing fraternity or automatically applicable to the velodrome of Chris Hoy? Would a discovery of Vettel's cheating prove all rally drivers' guilt; or would this fact be limited to open-wheeled track racing, or indeed extended across the whole spectrum of motor sport to include Mike Hailwood, Malcolm Campbell and power-boat racers (which might also implicate sailors!)? Just which sub-set should be included in drawing our conclusion? Your logic is precisely consistent with: Surely you see that it is as logical as the following statement: If I found out that you had committed armed robbery, I would know for a fact that this is true of every contributor to every motor racing forum*. ? Fun perhaps. But utter nonsense. - - -o0o- - - *Err, hang on; maybe I've got that wrong? I'm wondering whether I should restrict my conclusion to not606 members; or indeed, extend it to include everyone interested in motor sport. One thing I would know for a fact though: the Police would find this astounding revelation useful. They might even extend the truism to anyone and everyone interested in any sport, or apply it to the whole human sub-set (of animals) and everyone who ever lived, including you, me and every god made in our own image… For the good of all, SAINZ, I hope you'll put your psychology training to good use – as a criminologist!
