EXPLAINED: Lewis Hamilton trophy: What we know as F1 fan claims star gave him FIA prize in Baku
Lewis Hamilton took home the FIA third place trophy at the awards ceremony in Baku last Friday, but the prize was left in the hands of the fans.
The strangest incident of the 2023 Formula 1 season happened after all the on-track action had finished.
It’s about Lewis Hamilton and the FIA. I’ve been there before, but this time it wasn’t about what happened during the race. This story concerns an incident that took place on Friday night in Baku, Azerbaijan, which resulted in the loss of a Mercedes driver’s season prize.
Whoever seems to be there isn’t hiding it anyway. A social media user named Nihad Nesirli posted a photo of the trophy on his account.
He claims it was given to him by Hamilton. The Briton flew to Baku to attend the FIA’s end-of-season awards ceremony, where he packed his bags and gave a short podium speech before starting his winter holiday plans.
He didn’t walk away with a trophy in hand, and he shouldn’t have. As Mercedes revealed in a press alert on Sunday morning, Hamilton gave up the trophy on purpose, but not with the intention of protesting to the FIA, as some media reported.
The team’s statement reads: “Immediately after leaving the stage, as he had done at previous awards ceremonies, Lewis accepted the officials’ offer to send the trophy to the team and left it with them. “We can confirm that he did not give the trophy as a ‘gift’ to anyone.”
Of course, after reading this statement, some fans contacted Nihad Nesirli. This prompted social media users to take to their accounts again to address the issue, this time revealing that it was due to a misunderstanding between them and the F1 driver. They wrote: “Hello hello. It’s so disappointing to see messages saying you’re a thief or something. First of all, I didn’t steal anything from anywhere. It’s just a misunderstanding. Lewis Hamilton placed the trophy on the table. I asked him if I could accept a gift. He told me this: Yes, you can bring a gift. I thought he gave me a present. But now, after seeing Mercedes’ statement, I realize that Luis didn’t give me a gift. “He mistook me for an FIA prize official.”
However, this statement does not match Mirror Sport’s understanding of what happened after Hamilton won the trophy. Sources said the seven-time world champion handed the award to an FIA official and not Nihad Nesirli, as Mercedes said in a statement, and did not speak to fans before leaving the stadium.
It is not known how it came into Nihad Nesirli’s possession. Mirror Sport have approached them for comment. However, their claim that Hamilton gave them the trophy or allowed them to take it was disputed by several sources familiar with the evening’s events. The FIA is investigating the current location of the trophy and how it came into Nihad Nesirli’s possession. Mercedes and Hamilton will no doubt want to know how their event prizes were lost in this way.
