Formula One at present is under attack for just about everything possible. Engines, cars too easy to drive, drivers being nannied, historic circuits being dumped, unfair income distribution, boring races, ticket and TV costs too high and we can add to that ‘crap’ trophies.
After winning the 2014 British GP, Lewis Hamilton was surprised on the podium when he was presented with the trophy. He joked it was “falling apart”, adding, “Its plastic. It must have cost £10”.
Lewis is attached to his trophies and ensured when he joined Mercedes, the deal saw him keep the originals and the team retain a replica for their trophy cabinet. This was something that irked him at McLaren, as Ron Dennis insisted the team kept the originals.
“We just need to make better trophies – it’s shocking how bad the trophies are,” Lewis told The Telegraph.
“The trophies are as good as… at go kart level, it was really bad. Formula Renault was just little boxes with a car in the middle. Formula Three was good, and at the beginning of my Formula One career the trophies were really good. But now they are just terrible man. They are so bad. I told Bernie [Ecclestone] and he got the trophy guy in the room and I just said, ‘you know’.”
“Last year they gave me this plastic thing and I’m like, ‘This is not the trophy, it’s like a GP2 trophy, not the Formula One trophy. The gold one is really special. It would be great if each country had a real trophy like that, with character that grew over the years because of the history. I don’t know why they don’t make them the same any more.”
Of course times are tough for race sponsors and promoters as Ecclestone turns the screw demanding more money for the privilege of hosting an F1 race. Just 6 races in 2015 have a named sponsor, in 2009 just two did not have a race sponsor.
Top F1 Drivers are earning big bucks, so the race promoters will lose little sleep over Hamilton’s comments. Yet we can add it to the list of ‘F1 is broke’ items for now – though probably the fans don’t really care.
To be fair to him, last year’s British GR trophy twas essentially a 3D-printed Santander logo on a plinth, and then the plinth fell off. Compared to the old historic one with winners’ names engraved, it was a shitty trophy.
I thought the Austrian trophies were great, really nice to hold and with the counterweighted base, they swayed gently when placed on a flat surface.
Drunken Paddy Lowe seemed to agree, he couldn’t stop sniffing them!
The trophies are shockingly bad, but to be honest F1 is in such bad shape this isn’t worth mentioning.
It’s totally worth mentioning, the trophy is what you as a driver are there to collect. It’s significance should be elevated to winning the equivalent of the Ryder cup, the World Cup, the ashes, and the beautiful trophies given at Wimbledon. The British gp has always been the standout trophy of the year and the history of the Mervyn O’Gorman is extremely important to uphold. Whilst the sport needs to move on and evolve before it becomes extinct it should not ignore its past for the sake of a dour corporate image just to line the pockets of a certain Mr E.
Except a new Ryder cup isn’t made every time it is won – and they compete only once every two years for it.
You can’t be the pinnacle of motor sport and expect to get away with crappy trophies.
It was funny the way Ted Kravitz suckered Paddy into sniffing the trophy.
Then Paddy went on to say that someone had explained Lewis’s clutch problem but he had no idea what it meant.
For the Daytona 500, there is the perpetual Harley J. Earl Trophy, which like the Ryder Cup is simply updated wit the winner’s name.
However, since 1997 NASCAR has commissioned sculptor John Lajba to create a miniature each year. Apparently it takes about 360 hours for him to complete each Firebird I automobile by hand which is then silver plated. The replicas weigh in excess of 20kg.
Indy gives the winner an 18″ tall Baby Borg in sterling silver.
I always liked the old steering wheel trophies or even the motogp style where an extra layer is added for each winner. I am sure for around £2000 something special can be made(a small drop in the ocean and only a few day tickets to cover it ).Lewis is absolutely spot on with this. It might be a small complaint but when you miss the small things you know your in trouble.
I do care. Isn’t attention to detail something over which F1 prides itself? The trophies are huge mothereffing detail and they do look like crap. Of course this is something FOM should take car of and guess what, once more they don’t bother to actually promote F1.
If it costs Millions to put each race on, surely a couple of thousand could be found for a nice trophy? Even if the yearly replica was cheap…
I’ve watched the trophy presentations and they do look cheap. Formula 1 is thought of as the “pinnacle of motor sport” and the trophies should reflect that. Let Tiffany and Co. or Waterford Crystal design the USGP trophy. Let some of the other worldwide, upscale, luxury brand help design the trophies for the GPs and use a design, for instance, that would be considered to represent some unique to Austrian culture, Canadian culture, British culture, etc.
Nikki Lauda used to sell his off. Said they were just ego massagers and of no real use whatsoever.
I’m afraid that Formula 1 is about to hit bottom in so many ways. I don’t think that the podium finishers could sell the trophies for that much on ebay, etc now which is a statement in itself about the decline in recent years of Formula 1.