[WRC] News & Rumours (part V) 2017

[Simmi]

You can also think of it like this...

Here is a slightly fat and very stressed team manager of a global Motorsport team who does one round of the Belgian championship for fun every year (and usually stuff it into a tree).

Did he
A) take blood pressure lowering pills to perform like a rally super human in order to steal the Belgian championship crown by winning one round

Or
B) take pills to lower his blood pressure from his weight and very particular stress inducing job and did the event to forget for a while that he has 100 000+ pairs of eyes judging his performance every day.

In my opinion the sensible thing to do would be to give him a friendly reminder that those pills are not allowed in the championship... but the actual measure was very very harsh in my opinion.

This is all nice in theory - but like BleAivano says when it comes to anti-doping you can't have one rule for one guy and a rule for another. You set bad precedents for people who are trying to break the rules. At the end of the day you are responsible for what goes in your body. End of story. For a guy who is not in regular competition it's reasonable Matton wouldn't know that he needed a TUE for that sort of medication. He's held his hands up. The suspended penalty reflects all that. How is it harsh? He's not banned from competing. A good lesson for everyone.

[Lousada]

Did he
A) take blood pressure lowering pills to perform like a rally super human in order to steal the Belgian championship crown by winning one round

Not all banned substances are performance enhancing. Others are banned because they impair judgement or because they have side effects that will make you tired. That could be very dangerous when you race very close alongside spectators.
Also keep in mind that drugs have a completely different effect on healthy or sick people. A sick person who takes his medicine will feel normal again, but a healthy person taking that same medicine might experience all kinds of side effects. That is why the TUE exists to determine who really needs that drugs.

[itix]

This is all nice in theory - but like BleAivano says when it comes to anti-doping you can't have one rule for one guy and a rule for another. You set bad precedents for people who are trying to break the rules. At the end of the day you are responsible for what goes in your body. End of story. For a guy who is not in regular competition it's reasonable Matton wouldn't know that he needed a TUE for that sort of medication. He's held his hands up. The suspended penalty reflects all that. How is it harsh? He's not banned from competing. A good lesson for everyone.

Like with all rules you have to understand the intent behind the rule rather than try to apply it to everything.

Even court systems manage to do this, so why can't a Belgian rally organization?

[itix]

Not all banned substances are performance enhancing. Others are banned because they impair judgement or because they have side effects that will make you tired. That could be very dangerous when you race very close alongside spectators.
Also keep in mind that drugs have a completely different effect on healthy or sick people. A sick person who takes his medicine will feel normal again, but a healthy person taking that same medicine might experience all kinds of side effects. That is why the TUE exists to determine who really needs that drugs.

Well that may be, but in this case it is pretty clear this wasn't the case.

No sane person would do a rally on 150 mg of Ritalin but blood pressure pills literally just thin out the blood, nothing else.

A skinny calm person would feel slightly dizzy and no sane skinny calm person would take them.

[Simmi]

Even court systems manage to do this, so why can't a Belgian rally organization?

Matton has got away with a slap on the wrist and he can still compete. You understand the punishment he was given right? They could have come down way harder on him but they didn't.

I understand where you are coming from but I'm glad you are not in charge of any anti-doping programme.

[Franky]

To be honest, doping rules should be abolished because it's more about who has got the latest drugs than being clean.

[sonnybobiche]

The drug he took, which I'm sure was prescribed, has only one effect, which is lowering blood pressure. It has literally no cognitive side effects and no "performance enhancing" effects unless you consider avoiding a heart attack or stroke a performance enhancement.

In fact the main side effect of the drug (actually a combination of two drugs) is A) a persistent cough and B) having to urinate much more frequently. So if anything it was a hinderance to performance.

So, so stupid to ban substances like this. I wonder, do they ban use of Tylenol or Aspirin as well? Hell, they don't even ban coffee or red bull, even though they have an actual performance enhancing effect.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, as usual from the classic mindless european bureaucracy that is the FIA.

[jbmarcus21]

Lappi 1st times tarmac test with Yaris Wrc in Corsica road, gallery photos => http://bit.ly/2nUgeie

[janvanvurpa]

The drug he took, which I'm sure was prescribed, has only one effect, which is lowering blood pressure. .....
Dumb, dumb, dumb, as usual from the classic mindless european bureaucracy that is the FIA.

I see you have never tried to deal with SCCA, Rally America, ARA, or for that matter the United States State Department's minions in the consular corps...

you from New Jersey?

[janvanvurpa]

Like with all rules you have to understand the intent behind the rule rather than try to apply it to everything.

Even court systems manage to do this, so why can't a Belgian rally organization?

THIS...That is why some places begin rules with a statement of what the problem is, and then everybody has a clear idea of what the INTENT of the rules that follow are intending to address..t.ex .Some people eat "Performance enhancing drugs or narcotics...therefore the follow rules are enacted to blah blah..."

Then you can see if the ENFORCEMENT efforts to follow the rule have net positive effects of not..

Recently the Canajian Rally Federation in the explanatory foreword began discussing the "ever increasing speeds" and spiraling costs in "Open Class"......

And then announced a) new turbo inlet restrictor rules where there had previously been none, and a complicated minimum weight schedule to b) introduce a minimum weight in the 2wd turbo class meaning any 2wd car with a turbo would be forced to add 50-100kg, find or make a restrictor and mod turbo to mount it, re-map....all in the class having only 3-5 cars nationwide...

The new rules had nothing to do with the stated purpose of the rules of addressing OPEN (that is non-homologated turbo 4wd cars) class "spiraling costs and speeds...

Rules must be internally logical.
And there must be some action called JUDGEMENT..

As somebody said...Take him aside and quietly mention that he must do the bureaucratic song and dance or NEXT time he'll get whacked on his pee pee.