Joey Mawson has spilled his side of things in a bizarre timeline after he was handed ban from racing by Sporting Integrity due to consuming banned substance.
After he came through the ranks and competed in several junior championships in Asia and Europe, which included a title win in ADAC F4 championship and a title fight against Mick Schumacher in the MRF Challenge series, Mawson was forced to move back to Australia due to fund shortage.
The last few seasons, he spent competing in the S5000 championship in Australia, which he won twice in 2021 and 2022. He was amid his third season in the series in 2023 when after the third round, Mawson was found to have used a supplement which has been banned by World Anti-Doping Agency.
He was readily suspended from the fourth event as investigation and trial began behind the scenes. After more than a year, Mawson revealed about a three-year ban handed to him by the Sporting Integrity, which started from May 13, 2023, and will run until May 13, 2026.
He cannot take part in any kind of racing activity, whether sanctioned or non-sanctioned. In a long post, Mawson explained having used Mildronate after recommendation from his then girlfriend. A small oversight left him in a bad position, as he did not check if the supplement is okay to use or not.
The substance has been banned by WADA to be used by athletes and Mawson has had to pay a heavy price for the same. The 28-year-old has already completed more than one-year of the ban and wishes to return to racing once the ban is over in 2026, as he apologised for his mistake.
Here’s the long post –
“To those who may have been aware, on June 27th 2023, I received the heart breaking news from Sporting Integrity that I had been immediately suspending from motorsport for returning an adverse analytical finding from an in-competition doping control test at the Philip Island race weekend on May 13th 2023. Following the conclusion of Sporting investigation & decision I feel now is the appropriate time to announce the news and acknowledge my outcome. Sporting Integrity have imposed a three-year period of ineligibility commencing on 13 May 2023. I will be ineligible to participate in any sports that have adopted a World Anti-Doping Code compliant anti-doping policy until 13 May 2026. I will also not be permitted to compete in a non-Signatory professional league or Event organised by a non-Signatory International Event organisation or a non-Signatory national-level event organisation.
“This has been a very difficult time for me, for my family who have sacrificed so much and worked so hard to gift me the opportunity and dream that I was living. Without a doubt since the news broke out on June 27th, I experienced the darkest hours, days & months of my life. A living nightmare i couldn’t wake up from for months on end. The hardest part was knowing i had let down my parents, my team, my sponsors, my management, and all my surrounding people involved down with my mistake. It really crushed me and put my mind state in a damaged and destroyed place for a long time. I want to sincerely apologise to all the people who i have let down including fans. I want to bring forward as well the truth of how this whole situation has come about. The girl I had been dating at the time had been taking the supplement for her own training to benefit her cardio fitness.
“She had been someone who I trusted and thought to have my best interest at heart so when she brought forward the recommendation to take it following her own experience with it, I had decided I would try it too myself too, to support my training for running. She had sent me the link on Amazon to order the supplement. When I had ordered it on the Amazon link there had been no warning that it was banned by WADA or any wording that it is not approved for athletes. The supplement I had ordered was named Mildronate. On March 14th, I began taking the supplement. My intention was always to take it for my running training and my biggest mistake (which negligence is not as excuse as an athlete but it is my truth) is that I didn’t check that the supplement was approved for competition and not on the banned list. I never intended to take the supplement to enhance my racing. The risk & consequences for a driver to take this to have minimal benefit to the overall performance makes absolutely no sense.
“It was an honest mistake and now i will have to pay the consequences of that mistake, losing 3 years of my career along with the damage to my reputation. Again I must apologise to my Mum & Dad, Team 88 Racing, Team BRM, ACM Finance, The Sponsorship. Co, Chapel Boxing Fitness and to all my fans & supporters and the motorsport community. I wish to return to racing again after May 13th 2026. I love racing, my passion won’t go away. I miss it everyday, so I do hope i can be back in the seat someday.”