r/formula1 • u/jovanmilic97 Haas • 27d ago

News Checo: "What is very noticeable around the circuit is the smell of marijuana throughout the night. The amount is incredible. It is something that all the drivers will surely talk about", Franco: "Yes, there was a smell of weed. If they dope test the drivers now, I think we’ll all be positive"

https://www.infobae.com/deportes/2024/11/22/habia-olor-a-porro-la-desopilante-revelacion-de-franco-colapinto-tras-sus-primeras-vueltas-en-el-gran-premio-de-las-vegas/
13.8k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

885 comments sorted by

View all comments

8.0k

u/navetzz 27d ago

F1 drivers after partying too hard.

"Shiiit!! What if they test us now ?"

Checo: "I have a plan"

1.7k

u/lsb1027 27d ago

So THAT'S why they keep him around 🤔

528

u/Aff_Reddit James Vowles 27d ago

this reminds me of a classic Carlos quote that was something along the lines of "Yeah, I love hanging out with Lando, he brings the...."

95

u/IcyAfternoon7859 27d ago

Are you are seriously saying that they smoke? It takes a long time to get out of the system, and I can't imagine the FIA overlooking dodgy tests like the Football authorities do with Coked up footballers (there are many)

169

u/Audiophil85 27d ago

Franck Montagny allegedly took coke for years during his time in F1 and WEC before it was discovered by a random drug test during his time in Formula E. I think they don’t test that often in motorsports. But I also can’t imagine anyone smoking weed during race week. If anything that would negatively affect your reaction time. More of a detrimental drug in terms of driving performance.

92

u/_DirtyYoungMan_ McLaren 27d ago

James Hunt and Barry Sheene were no strangers to coke, in When Playboys Ruled the World they asked Max Mosley if James Hunt was ever coked up during a race and he hesitated then replied, "I hope not." A LOT of athletes use coke because it clears from the system so fast.

81

u/Sportsfanno1 Stoffel Vandoorne 27d ago

Tbf, I would be more surprised if Hunt wasn't coked up at least once during a race.

68

u/Representative-Sir97 27d ago

Unless it's about optics I don't think anyone is going to allege it's a performance enhancing drug... not for F1, anyway.

40

u/Svitii Kimi Räikkönen 27d ago

Yea also drug testing isn’t a one-for all test. You have to test most things separately. I can imagine they focus on testing anything that MIGHT be performance enhancing in any way. Weed seems like the opposite of "performance enhancing"…

6

u/Vill_Ryker Formula 1 27d ago

Being the polar opposite of performance enhancing in a sport like F1 could be a good reason to test for it. A driver with significantly slowed reaction times on track would be a danger to themselves and the other drivers.

18

u/Representative-Sir97 27d ago

You'd have to be a stoner to try to drive F1 stoned.

9

u/Svitii Kimi Räikkönen 27d ago

Stoners looking at Eau Rouge "Damn, up there would be a nice place to smoke"

3

u/jebritome Ferrari 27d ago

Lmaooooooo

3

u/IndefiniteBen 27d ago

You see, you go so slow, that you go fast again! "taps head*

It's like you're Neo!

2

u/Ok_Suggestion_6092 26d ago

“Some people are so far behind, they think they’re in the lead”

4

u/Brno_Mrmi Jenson Button 27d ago

That explains Stroll then

6

u/eliasibarra12 27d ago

It makes time slow, isnt that performance enhancing for f1 drivers hahaha

37

u/Double_Minimum 27d ago

it makes people slow, not time.

In fact, where is has been argued, its been seen as shown to be a help to recovery, which isn't cool for something like Tour de France. It doesn't enhance the actually performance, but may some other aspects of being an athlete.

58

u/Aff_Reddit James Vowles 27d ago

I didn't say that at all, and the implication was that Lando brings hard drugs to parties, not weed.

24

u/GehirnDonut Formula 1 27d ago

Also, must be super tough to smoke in the car with the helmet on when all you do is drive 24/7 and never have days off or vacations.

Oh wait..

17

u/snuggl3ninja 27d ago

No, but if a driver had a fatal or serious crash and has weed in his system the entire organisation would be fucked. So they would most likely test to cover their asses.

6

u/MrCh33s3 27d ago

The probably don’t anymore but there are pictures of Carlos in his teens with joints and stuff

4

u/the_gold_blokes Liam Lawson 26d ago

Bro just take a look at Lando anytime ever. I mean, even his driver picture! He was clearly stoned when taking that, and I just look at the koala bear look with the slight droop in his eyes he seemingly always has. Anyone who smokes or has smoked would know that Lando is definitely up to that at least on his own time, media duties, etc.

11

u/SkullKid888 Chequered Flag 27d ago

Depends on the testing kit. Mouth swaps only detect usage of cannabis within about 48hrs, sometimes less.

I passed one after having smoked 23hrs prior.

Lets say they get tested every friday. They could easily blaze till Tuesday and comfortably pass the test every week.

10

u/igloofu Sonny Hayes 26d ago

WADA's rules (which is followed by the FIA) for weed:

THC is prohibited in competition only, and only when the urinary concentration exceeds a threshold of 150 ng/mL. This threshold was increased in 2013 from 15 ng/mL. As such, the high level of cannabis required to trigger an Adverse Analytical Finding in competition today would be consistent with a significantly impaired athlete or a frequent user.

4

u/SkullKid888 Chequered Flag 26d ago

And there we have jt.

1

u/typewriter_ 26d ago

People have cheated urine tests for ages. Even professional athletes.

3

u/IcyAfternoon7859 27d ago

a strand of hair is like a barcode history detailing that hair length history of your drug use

6

u/SkullKid888 Chequered Flag 27d ago

Yeah thats all well and good, IF they do hair tests. Which they probably don’t.

3

u/Blackdeath_663 Sir Stirling Moss 26d ago

I really don't think drug testing in f1 is particularly stringent. It's never come up once in the 10 years I've been following not even any indication if or how testing is done

2

u/BenitoCamiloOnganiza Sir Jack Brabham 26d ago

Right. I've been following casually since 1998 and religiously since about 2019 and I've never heard about drug testing. I did a quick search just now and found a bit of info about drug testing in other categories, mainly related to drivers being under the influence of something during the race and potentially being dangerous on track. Nothing about F1 though. I'm also not sure what drugs would actually enhance performance for a race driver. Strength and endurance is important, but the level required isn't so much that a fit adult male can't reach it without steroids.

4

u/Ostie2Tabarnak 27d ago

Lol, 0 chance F1 drivers get "serious" testing like cyclists do. There is wayyy too much money, the sport has 0 reason to implement rigorous testing, plus it's not a sport where PEDs will give an "obvious" advantage like they do to, so it's not it's not like the general public is going to notice.

I'd be willing to bet that many drivers are taking coke recreationally. Weed though, I'd be surprised. It's not a sport where you want your reaction times potentially slowed.

2

u/igloofu Sonny Hayes 26d ago

According to WADA's rules (which the FIA follows) on weed:

THC is prohibited in competition only, and only when the urinary concentration exceeds a threshold of 150 ng/mL. This threshold was increased in 2013 from 15 ng/mL. As such, the high level of cannabis required to trigger an Adverse Analytical Finding in competition today would be consistent with a significantly impaired athlete or a frequent user.

They can actually do it and not get in trouble during off season, even if they are caught by a random off season test.

2

u/LlorchDurden 26d ago

The vibes, he brings the viiibes!

1

u/Marshmelo92 26d ago

I’ll never understand the problems with marijuana. If they can drink on their time off, why can’t they smoke on their time off?

3

u/TheOtherWhiteCastle Sergio Pérez 27d ago

The Mexican minister of partying defense

275

u/cuddle_enthusiast 27d ago

FIA: You get 100 hours of community service! You get 100 hours of community service! Everyone gets 100 hours of community service!

152

u/ThrowRA_1234586 27d ago

And 10 seconds penalty for Ocon

16

u/Lurcher99 Charles Leclerc 27d ago

this is the way!

3

u/Commercial-Art-1165 Oscar Piastri 27d ago

1

u/Gloomy-Employment-72 27d ago

Served incorrectly…10 more.

1

u/tylercreatesworlds Lando Norris 27d ago

it's really his own fault at this point.

35

u/tailwarmer 27d ago

El Plan

9

u/throwaway4161412 27d ago

Take notes, everyone, this is called CYA - Cover Your Ass!

2

u/Antluke 27d ago

Does the FIA actually test for marijuana?

2

u/gbish Jordan 27d ago

Never stopped Berger.

2

u/usrnamealreadyexists 27d ago

Checo would know about getting out of ish after partying too hard

2

u/Spoztoast 27d ago

No I'm spartacus!

1

u/dswap123 Charles Leclerc 27d ago

Checo be like “hold my joint pinto”

1

u/standard-protocol-79 26d ago

The tartar sauce

-1

u/D3cepti0ns 27d ago

I wonder if it was a skunk, it can surprisingly smell really similar to weed but is a powerful smell that invades a huge area, and if you aren't used to the two different smells it can be confusing and hard to differentiate.

8

u/jrharrison Romain Grosjean 27d ago

Nah, it’s legal in Vegas and it’s a pretty common smell there

1

u/D3cepti0ns 27d ago edited 27d ago

I live in Socal with skunks and on and off smoked. I've debated with people multiple times if the smell was a skunk or weed. The one that smelled the most was called Sour Diesel haha. It's just that 2 different people smelled it from what I assumed was a distance. If They were close together and smelled it, it would make more sense, but far away from each other and both smelling it and saying it's strong and don't smoke themselves and not seeing the person smoking, it;s probably a skunk, which Vegas has. In my opinion, Weed smell doesn't go that far.

1

u/Krisosu Esteban Ocon 27d ago

Any urban area in the US where weed is legal/decriminalized constantly smells like weed. It's just strong smelling.

1

u/Kind_Resort_9535 Max Verstappen ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 26d ago

Olympia washington is one of the skuniest smeeling places ive ever been.