Lewis Hamilton received a record-equalling seventh world title on the Turkish Grand Prix, however you will not have seen an image of him holding the championship trophy.

It stays one of the vital curious elements of F1 that the champion doesn’t get his prize when he wins the title, one thing which units the sequence other than the vast majority of sporting competitions.

As a fast check, try to assume what the F1 championship trophy appears to be like like (it is onerous, as it’s so not often featured prominently at occasions) after which distinction to how shortly your thoughts conjures up photos of different sporting trophies. The big Stanley Cup, the golden FIFA World Cup, the Vincent Lombardi trophy, you title it, you possibly can image them. 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 inexperienced in a purple shirt on the ultimate day of a Main.

Whereas all of them look nice, they’re particular as a result of we affiliate them with victory — they’re handed out instantly after a champion has been topped. We appear them in each image, on each newspaper, in each tweet, in each video montage about that successful athlete or workforce which is able to ever be created from that time onwards.

Sadly, the identical can’t be mentioned for F1 and its World Drivers Championship Trophy, to provide it its official title. It would not even have its personal Wikipedia web page, which is a really baffling factor for the yr 2020 and for a sport which is so steadily attempting to make itself related within the trendy sporting panorama.

It is a disgrace, too, as a result of it is a magnificence. A towering silver jug with gold lining, that includes the title of each champion courting again to the inaugural championship in 1950. Bar it being featured behind Hamilton in an interview he did for F1 after the Turkish GP, it was nowhere to be seen as Hamilton celebrated transferring stage with Schumacher’s seven world titles. That was a really historic achievement however at no level did Hamilton get his palms on the trophy.

As you are in all probability struggling to image in your head proper now, right here it’s for reference.

That is Hamilton holding it in 2015 at a post-season gala, hosted by racing’s governing physique, the FIA. It isn’t only for F1 — trophies are handed out for quite a few occasions beneath the FIA umbrella.

It is why should you do a fast google of ‘F1 World Championship Trophy’ you’ll merely see folks in tuxedos or fits holding it — distinction that to the human emotion you could find with an identical search of any of the trophies (or jackets) talked about above.

The official rationalization the FIA provides is that at this stage of the season there might nonetheless be protests lodged by rival groups that have an effect on the end result of the championship. Whereas that is true, the identical argument is not utilized to the presentation of podium trophies instantly after every race and earlier than the official end result have been set.

Assume again to the 2019 Brazilian Grand Prix. Hamilton completed that race third however was clearly set to get a penalty for his clumsy collision with Alex Albon on the ultimate lap. He nonetheless visited the rostrum as protocol mandated, earlier than visiting FIA race director Michael Masi and the stewards, the place he was penalised and relegated down the order. A number of hours after the TV broadcasts had ended, Carlos Sainz and McLaren took their place on the rostrum for a delayed celebration.

An analogous incident occurred at that yr’s Austrian Grand Prix, the place Max Verstappen had barged previous Charles Leclerc on the ultimate lap to win. Verstappen had celebrated on the rostrum, earlier than each males went to see the stewards afterwards and the official results of the race hung within the steadiness for a number of hours. Verstappen saved the win, however it was unusual that doubt existed when the vast majority of viewers had seen Verstappen have a good time with the trophy.

If something, the post-race podium is the factor which ought to be delayed, given how shortly official punishments will be handed out after an occasion. Probably championship-altering appeals have been uncommon. 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 might have altered the results of the Brazilian Grand Prix and made Lewis Hamilton champion — however it got here to nothing.

Whereas awarding a brand new champion his trophy instantly can be the wise and regular factor for F1 to do, it additionally is smart given one of many questions so many sports activities followers wrestle with — how a lot is success on a driver over his or her machine? To award a trophy in such a sterile atmosphere does little to advertise the driving force facet of that debate. It additionally does little to help the thought F1 and the FIA are not obsessive about a number of the outdated traditions they’ve clung to for many years.

It’s outstanding to look again at Hamilton’s first championship, on the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, which he celebrated along with his workforce within the paddock whereas the person he defeated Felipe Massa, stood on the rostrum because the winner of the race. That offered one of many iconic moments of that decade, with an emotional Massa thumping his chest in entrance of his residence crowd, as a result of it was uncooked and emotional. It’s in these moments athletes need to get their palms on the factor they’ve competed for.

This season, Hamilton will obtain his trophy at a digital occasion, streamed stay by the FIA, in mid-December.