Grand Prix Rejects

Remember Tomas Enge? You know, the fellow who drove for the dying Prost team in the final few races of 2001 and did absolutely sod all. Well, he dropped back down to F3000 for 2002 and was set to storm to the title, when he failed a drugs test, effectively costing him the title. Well, almost a decade later, he's done it again. What an absolute fool.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100501

East Londoner wrote:Remember Tomas Enge? You know, the fellow who drove for the dying Prost team in the final few races of 2001 and did absolutely sod all. Well, he dropped back down to F3000 for 2002 and was set to storm to the title, when he failed a drugs test, effectively costing him the title. Well, almost a decade later, he's done it again. What an absolute fool.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100501

He mentions having health problems that involve taking drugs that are in the forbidden substances list, so he might as well deserve the benefit of the doubt.

Phoenix wrote:

East Londoner wrote:Remember Tomas Enge? You know, the fellow who drove for the dying Prost team in the final few races of 2001 and did absolutely sod all. Well, he dropped back down to F3000 for 2002 and was set to storm to the title, when he failed a drugs test, effectively costing him the title. Well, almost a decade later, he's done it again. What an absolute fool.

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/100501

He mentions having health problems that involve taking drugs that are in the forbidden substances list, so he might as well deserve the benefit of the doubt.

His quote as in the Autosport article:

Enge, who drives for the Reiter Lamborghini squad in GT1, said: "I am in shock. After what happened in 2002, I've been careful in every way of anything related to doping.

"I suffer from long-term health problems and recently asked the FIA for an exemption so that I can take medicines that are on the banned substances list. Now I will consult with experts to find out how this situation occurred."

Ok, maybe he does have health-problems, and I'm not going to call him a blatant liar. But, if he knew he was taking medicine that has substances banned, why didn't he inform the FIA in the first place?! Why wait until he got caught? Seems a bit amateurish to me...

Well, when Mr Enge failed his first F1 drug test that cost him his F3000 title, it was for Cannabis.

Have the FIA drug tests ever caught somebody else?

Bollocks, if it was medical treatment they wouldn't have pulled him up about it. Sounds about as convincing as any cycling rider's excuse, like Contador's "it was in some meat"!

Yannick wrote:Well, when Mr Enge failed his first F1 drug test that cost him his F3000 title, it was for Cannabis.

So he suffers from Glaucoma then?

Drugs are bad, mkay.

AdrianSutil wrote:Ok, maybe he does have health-problems, and I'm not going to call him a blatant liar. But, if he knew he was taking medicine that has substances banned, why didn't he inform the FIA in the first place?! Why wait until he got caught? Seems a bit amateurish to me...

I agree. If he really had health problems, he should have informed FIA before drugs tests...

eurobrun wrote:Drugs are bad, mkay.

Indeed.

Yannick wrote:Well, when Mr Enge failed his first F1 drug test that cost him his F3000 title, it was for Cannabis.

Have the FIA drug tests ever caught somebody else?

It's not even like it's a performance-enhancing drug. If it was ephedrine or nandrolone or something I'd understand but marijuana would, if anything, decrease performance.

Sunshine_Baby_[IT] wrote:

AdrianSutil wrote:Ok, maybe he does have health-problems, and I'm not going to call him a blatant liar. But, if he knew he was taking medicine that has substances banned, why didn't he inform the FIA in the first place?! Why wait until he got caught? Seems a bit amateurish to me...

I agree. If he really had health problems, he should have informed FIA before drugs tests...

Exactly, plus there's tons of medication out there which would aid his problems without containing banned substances. Do we know what banned substance it is?

I can remember when Enge got the Prost seat, he was rumoured to have sponsorship from Coke. They were nearly right...

eurobrun wrote:Drugs are bad, mkay.

Only when not taken in moderation...

As far I as understood, he actually asked FIA to use these medicines long time prior to the test. I prefer to wait a bit longer to see if he explains a bit better what is his problem and what medicines does he need to take.

I only think, in case of being innocent, that he was naive for not letting everybody know the truth before it came out. And just saying something like "I've been very careful about doping since 2002 and I have a long-time illness that forces me to take this and that" instead of being more clear doesn't help either.

Here in Brazil, we had a driver (Alceu Feldmann) that faced a similar problem. He didn't attend an antidoping test and justified it saying that he didn't need to do it because he had an informal authorization for using a medicine that replaces hormones. He was still banned for 30 days because he should have gone to the test with an official authorization issued by WADA.

This just reminded me of the snooker player Bill Werbeniuk who most of you are probably too young to remember ...

From the 'pedia :

Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – up to 50 pints of lager per day. He said that he generally drank around six pints of lager before a match and then one pint for each frame. He said he did this to counteract familial benign essential tremor.Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.""

I can remember Rubens Barrichello nearly having to sit out a couple of races in 1995 because his cold medicine contained a banned substance? That is the basis for how my fan fiction story gets started, but that's another thread...

Is it bad that I could actually picture Enge smoking a bong.

madmark1974 wrote:This just reminded me of the snooker player Bill Werbeniuk who most of you are probably too young to remember ...

From the 'pedia :

Werbeniuk was noted for the copious amounts of alcohol he consumed before and during matches – up to 50 pints of lager per day. He said that he generally drank around six pints of lager before a match and then one pint for each frame. He said he did this to counteract familial benign essential tremor.Later in his career he also took propranolol, a beta blocker to cope with the effects of his alcohol consumption on his heart.""

And then there's a Mr Keith Richards, who by all rights should have been killed off because of drugs by now

LellaLombardi wrote:I can remember Rubens Barrichello nearly having to sit out a couple of races in 1995 because his cold medicine contained a banned substance? That is the basis for how my fan fiction story gets started, but that's another thread...

Barrichello himself told here in Brazilian media that he used Oxymetazoline Hydrochloridre because he was cold and urged a medicine that could solve the problem as soon as possible. Instead of asking Jordan Grand Prix's physician, he phoned his mother and asked her what could he take. She suggested a medicine (Afrin) that had the substance above, which showed up in the WADA banned substances list, and he took it.

When he got caught by the exam and Jordan figured out the actual reason, the team criticized him for what happened. The physician called him an immature guy.

And MASSIMILIANO PAPIS was caught in the same test, but I don't know any other information about it.

IIRC both drivers became aware that they had taken this banned substance that would theoretically show up in a test, made it public when they were randomly selected, but their tests actually came back negative.

(Now that I'm posting in the right area )


If Enge does have an illness, one that could ruin his career if the press found out about it - it might be worth him hiding the fact he was on a medication.

Tim Richmond from NASCAR, thats a good example http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Richmond

I'm not saying Enge has this, but never the less, if it is an embarrasing illness, then he deserves the benifit of doubt for hiding it. If it is just illegal drugs though, then shame on him!

eurobrun wrote:Is it bad that I could actually picture Enge smoking a bong.

Next to Michael Phelps and Shane Hmiel!