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Lewis Hamilton certainly knows how to make a statement. He voluntarily left his official 3rd place trophy from the 2023 championship on a table before leaving the FIA gala in Baku on Friday.
It’s the first time in his career that Hamilton has finished third in an F1 World Championship, and he was present at the ceremony where Max Verstappen and Red Bull were officially crowned champions alongside other FIA title winners (WRC, WEC, Formula E, etc…).
However, the ceremony came just days after the FIA opened and controversially closed an investigation into Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and F1 Academy director Susie Wolff over suspected confidential information sharing and possible conflicts of interest.
During the pre-ceremony press conference, Hamilton did not hold back in criticizing the FIA. And to clearly express his displeasure, he abandoned his official trophy. A passing fan asked if he could take it, and Hamilton responded, saying, “It’s yours!”
For a reminder, here are some of Lewis Hamilton’s statements from Friday afternoon:
“It’s been a tough week, I think, a disappointing week really, to see the governing body of our sport trying to question the integrity of one of the most amazing leaders we’ve ever had in our sport, Susie Wolff, without any questioning, without any evidence.”
“Then to just sweep it under the carpet and say sorry at the end is just unacceptable.”
“We’ve got a lot of great people in the sport doing an amazing job, there’s a constant push to really improve diversity and inclusion, but it seems like there’s certain members of the FIA leadership that every time we take a step forward, they’re trying to drag us backwards and that needs to change.”
“This is a global sport and we have an incredible opportunity and a natural responsibility to be a leader for change. Travelling to every country in the world, we have the responsibility to ensure that we’re going in the right direction.”
“I want to acknowledge there’s a lot of people doing great work, but we’ve got to make some changes to make sure we’re going in the right direction.”
Update at 11h29: Mercedes F1 has responded, seeking to understand what really happened.
The fan in question, Nihad Nesirli, claims he received the trophy “as a gift” from Lewis Hamilton, who then left. This trophy is now at his house, as confirmed by a copy of the tweet below ( made in case the fan deletes it).
But according to the team, Hamilton was supposed to hand it over to a ceremony official to be sent back to England separately.