The place is Max Verstappen’s championship trophy?

Max Verstappen wrapped up a second F1 world championship on Sunday, however you will not discover any footage of him celebrating with the trophy he simply received.

It stays one of many archaic quirks of Formulation One which the world champion doesn’t obtain their trophy till the tip of the 12 months. Verstappen won’t get his palms on it once more till the black tie FIA Prize Giving Gala in December.

The championship trophy makes fleeting appearances at F1 occasions. On the Japanese Grand Prix it was on the entrance of the grid throughout the pre-race formalities however was conspicuously nowhere to be seen when Verstappen was celebrating successful it a number of hours later.

A variety of F1 followers would in all probability battle to right away consider what the championship trophy seems like, which is weird once you examine that to different sports activities.

Most main sporting occasions instantly conjure up psychological photos of the trophy on supply — the large Stanley Cup, the golden FIFA World Cup, the Vincent Lombardi Trophy, the Ashes urn, or the Indy 500’s Borg-Warner Trophy, to call just a few examples. Even the sight of the winner of the Masters slipping right into a crisp inexperienced jacket is famous — it’s as synonymous with golf as Tiger Woods strolling down a fairway in a crimson shirt on the ultimate day of a significant.

These trophies are particular as a result of they’re related to the uncooked emotion of victory. However seek for any picture of the F1 trophy and you’ll normally discover footage of it in a sterile atmosphere, being held by drivers in sensible fits a number of weeks or months down the road, when the second has lengthy handed them by.

After successful in Japan, Verstappen briefly held the Japanese Grand Prix trophy whereas on the rostrum (which in itself was very spectacular) however that was it. There was no trophy ceremony for the brand new world champion.

The FIA and F1 are actually doing the championship trophy a disservice, too, as a result of it’s a actually putting prize. A towering silver jug with gold lining, that includes the title of each champion relationship again to the inaugural championship in 1950.

To indicate you ways unknown it’s, there isn’t any Wikipedia web page for the trophy, which is formally referred to as the FIA Formulation One World Drivers’ Championship trophy.

Why does he have to attend for it?

F1 has pushed for a rethink in how the trophy is handed out in recent times, however the FIA has caught to its present components.

The rationale the FIA offers is {that a} postseason enchantment by a rival workforce may alter the end result of the championship if factors are deducted from a driver. Whereas that logic is smart, it immediately contradicts what occurs on the finish of the grand prix occasion.

As we noticed ultimately week’s Singapore Grand Prix, Sergio Perez celebrated victory on the rostrum regardless of the actual fact he confronted what may have been a result-altering penalty. After doing the rostrum and conducting his media duties, he went to see the stewards — on that event he stored the victory, but it surely reveals you ways the present process rewards the winner within the second slightly than after the actual fact.

Mockingly, one of the best instance of a post-championship enchantment threatening the end result of the championship was final 12 months, when Verstappen beat Lewis Hamilton to the title on the controversial Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Mercedes ultimately dropped their enchantment a number of hours earlier than Verstappen was formally offered with the trophy on the gala occasion.

However you must go additional again to seek out different examples. In 1999, Ferrari was briefly disqualified — handing Mika Hakkinen and McLaren the championship — from the penultimate race of the season, the Malaysian Grand Prix, solely to be reinstated later that night. In 2007, McLaren appealed Sauber and Williams for gas irregularities the week after Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen had received the title — which may have altered the results of the Brazilian Grand Prix and made Hamilton champion — but it surely got here to nothing.