Doping in Motorsport Dissertation

[jeddows]

Evening, hope this is allowed, if not my apologies!

I'm a Motorsport Engineering student at Wiltshire College, and as part of my degree I'm completing a dissertation on the topic of doping in motorsport, and whether it should be an issue that the sport is concerned about.
As such, one of the areas I'm looking into is the public perception of doping in sport (and motorsport in particular), including how doping cases might impact on fan support. To do this I've created a questionnaire, should only take about five or six minutes to complete, and I'd be really grateful of some responses from motorsport enthusiasts!

If you fell like completing it, the link is: https://jamesbeddow.typeform.com/to/mnAsea

Cheers!

[Vyssion]

Done.

Tricky for me to conceive how doping in the typical "steroid" abuse kind of way, could be used to help motorsport competitors... I suppose a hit of caffeine before the race could help reaction times, or perhaps fat burning ones to keep their weight down (though there is now a minimum BMI for some formulas), or maybe fast-muscle-recovery ones... but yeah dunno...

[mrluke]

Done.

I thought that doping was a specific reference to blood doping rather than a general catch all term for any form of prohibited substance.

[jeddows]

Done.

Tricky for me to conceive how doping in the typical "steroid" abuse kind of way, could be used to help motorsport competitors... I suppose a hit of caffeine before the race could help reaction times, or perhaps fat burning ones to keep their weight down (though there is now a minimum BMI for some formulas), or maybe fast-muscle-recovery ones... but yeah dunno...

Thank you!

Yeah from what I've found it looks like drivers are already using caffeine (as well as a few cases of amphetamines), though there could be scope for more use (particularly with more races in 'extreme' conditions where drivers may need more of a boost).
As for steroids, from what I've read there's quite a lot of pressure about getting the current spec F1 cars down to the minimum weight, so larger drivers are at a disadvantage (Ricciardo was recently quote saying he was having to get down to about 67-68kg for the current car). While they need to get the weight down, they've still got to be able to maintain the muscle and endurance to withstand races (high Gs etc), so my thoughts are that drivers may resort to steroids to keep weight down whilst retaining muscle mass?

[jeddows]

Done.

I thought that doping was a specific reference to blood doping rather than a general catch all term for any form of prohibited substance.

Cheers!

I think doping is more of a catch all phrase about the use of drugs, but there is always blood doping

[J.A.W.]

Too funny!
Imagine if the 1976 F1 World Champion had been required to submit to a WADA drug test!

The legendary excesses were, naturally - par for the course - for such 'seasoned ' Champaigners, ah.. campaigners..

See: James Hunt/Barry Sheene ( last dual British premier class FIM/FIA W/Cs ) for - joint winner S/D/R&R shenanigans in `76!

[jeddows]

Too funny!
Imagine if the 1976 F1 World Champion had been required to submit to a WADA drug test!

The legendary excesses were, naturally - par for the course - for such 'seasoned ' Champaigners, ah.. campaigners..

See: James Hunt/Barry Sheene ( last dual British premier class FIM/FIA W/Cs ) for - joint winner S/D/R&R shenanigans in `76!

Haha, guess the gird would look even emptier than now! Though I'm surprised Kimi manages to cope with testing...

[NutritionFact]

Nice discussion, and good plan
Inba german forum they talking about april 1st.

[Cold Fussion]

Done.

Tricky for me to conceive how doping in the typical "steroid" abuse kind of way, could be used to help motorsport competitors... I suppose a hit of caffeine before the race could help reaction times, or perhaps fat burning ones to keep their weight down (though there is now a minimum BMI for some formulas), or maybe fast-muscle-recovery ones... but yeah dunno...

Thank you!

Yeah from what I've found it looks like drivers are already using caffeine (as well as a few cases of amphetamines), though there could be scope for more use (particularly with more races in 'extreme' conditions where drivers may need more of a boost).
As for steroids, from what I've read there's quite a lot of pressure about getting the current spec F1 cars down to the minimum weight, so larger drivers are at a disadvantage (Ricciardo was recently quote saying he was having to get down to about 67-68kg for the current car). While they need to get the weight down, they've still got to be able to maintain the muscle and endurance to withstand races (high Gs etc), so my thoughts are that drivers may resort to steroids to keep weight down whilst retaining muscle mass?

I don't really see any benefit in taking steroids in motorsport. For such skill based activities it would be far more likely they'd be taking something like adderall or some other amphetamine.

[jeddows]

I don't really see any benefit in taking steroids in motorsport. For such skill based activities it would be far more likely they'd be taking something like adderall or some other amphetamine.

My thinking behind possible steroid use is less that it will increase their actual driving performance, more that it would allow drivers to reduce their overall weight (and in particular body fat %), while retaining the same level of muscle needed to cope with the G-forces.
Some of the studies I've found about steroid use have shown that users can have significantly reduced body-fat percentages (one I've read showed that for similar body weights (roughly 110kg iirc), steroid users had around 11kg less body-fat), so my train of thought is that by using steroids a driver could cut his overall weight, but maintain a similar amount of muscle.

[Cold Fussion]

You don't need steroids to achieve a lean body mass though, which is why I question how worthwhile it is. Too me the risk (of being banned for doping) vs reward is far to low to be worth considering.

[jeddows]

You don't need steroids to achieve a lean body mass though, which is why I question how worthwhile it is. Too me the risk (of being banned for doping) vs reward is far to low to be worth considering.

Oh, absolutely, steroids aren't necessary at all, and yes the potential risks definitely outweigh the benefits (from a rational point of view). However, given how small the margins are at the top level, and how much pressure drivers are under to keep their seats (particularly as rookies are not only competing against established competitors, but also pay-drivers for seats, especially in the 'lower' teams), I don't believe it's completely unthinkable that a driver, particularly a larger one, may be at least tempted to turn to steroids (or other doping methods) to get a winning edge.

[Cold Fussion]

The gain you might see from steroid use is maybe you more easily hold 1-2% lower body fat percentage which is less than 2kg. The question you need to ask is what advantage do you gain from that -2kg, bearing in mind there is a minimum weight limit. 2kg is maybe .1 of a second, given the gap between cars in F1 throughout it's history I wouldn't be risking it all for just .1s.

[jeddows]

The gain you might see from steroid use is maybe you more easily hold 1-2% lower body fat percentage which is less than 2kg. The question you need to ask is what advantage do you gain from that -2kg, bearing in mind there is a minimum weight limit. 2kg is maybe .1 of a second, given the gap between cars in F1 throughout it's history I wouldn't be risking it all for just .1s.

But, if the team is struggling to get the car down to the minimum weight, then there's pressure to save weight everywhere, including for the driver. As Ricciardo pointed out in interviews, as Red Bull are pushing hard to catch up to Mercedes & Ferrari, he's under pressure to get his weight down to free up an extra few kg for the team to use else where.

But I do appreciate what you're saying, it's definitely a big risk for small gains, and it's (hopefully) unlikely drivers would resort to it, but then again F1 is all about the small gains!

[Cold Fussion]

The gain you might see from steroid use is maybe you more easily hold 1-2% lower body fat percentage which is less than 2kg. The question you need to ask is what advantage do you gain from that -2kg, bearing in mind there is a minimum weight limit. 2kg is maybe .1 of a second, given the gap between cars in F1 throughout it's history I wouldn't be risking it all for just .1s.

But, if the team is struggling to get the car down to the minimum weight, then there's pressure to save weight everywhere, including for the driver. As Ricciardo pointed out in interviews, as Red Bull are pushing hard to catch up to Mercedes & Ferrari, he's under pressure to get his weight down to free up an extra few kg for the team to use else where.

But I do appreciate what you're saying, it's definitely a big risk for small gains, and it's (hopefully) unlikely drivers would resort to it, but then again F1 is all about the small gains!

It wouldn't surprise me if drivers of today or in the past were taking some sort of performance enhancing drugs. Pretty much every other sport has had problems with it in the past combined with the very lax drug testing it seems unlikely there has never been any instance of it. In professional gaming it has been long suspect that players (especially in the USA) would take Adderall or something similar to enhance concentration and reactions. A CS:GO team in 2015 called Cloud 9 was reported (by former team members) to be taking Adderall in major tournaments.