After overcoming the stress of a title struggle, a factors deficit to his team-mate and all of the dramas of McLaren’s papaya guidelines, Lando Norris clinched his first System 1 title in Abu Dhabi after ending third within the season finale.
However after seeing off stiff competitors from team-mate Oscar Piastri and Pink Bull’s Max Verstappen over the course of the 24-race season, what does the Brit really win for changing into F1’s newest champion?
In System 1’s 75-year historical past, there have been 35 completely different world champions from 16 producers. In that point, the prize for the F1 champion has remained largely unchanged.
Firstly, there’s one factor that the brand new world champion doesn’t get, and that’s a prize fund just like the profitable constructor will obtain. System 1 doesn’t dish out prize cash to its profitable driver, and as an alternative divides the prize pot amongst its groups in line with a posh formulation set out within the Concorde Settlement.
Drivers could get a bonus from their group because of the win, however a driver prize fund from F1 or the FIA doesn’t exist. This has traditionally been the case too, with particular person races typically handing out prize cash to the highest finishers, however a comically giant cheque for the champion isn’t seen in F1.
The World Drivers Championship trophy
Picture by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Pictures by way of Getty Pictures
One factor the drivers do get, nevertheless, is a trophy. For the reason that Nineteen Nineties, the trophy in query has been the imaginatively named FIA System 1 World Drivers’ Championship Trophy. The award was designed by Richard Fox of metalworking firm Fox Silver in 1995. It incorporates a sterling silver cup with gold particulars and incorporates the signatures of each champion all through F1 historical past.
Annually, the F1 champion picks up this trophy on the annual FIA Prize-Giving Ceremony, which takes place at a separate occasion after the chequered flag has flown on the final race of the season. Nonetheless, the trophy will not be Norris’ to maintain, because it’s typically displayed on the profitable driver’s group’s facility earlier than being taken again by the FIA and handed to the following F1 champion a 12 months later. If a driver does need their very own champion’s cup to take house, they will pay for a reproduction.
This 12 months, the prize-giving ceremony will happen in Uzbekistan’s capital, Tashkent, and can see the FIA crown the F1 champion, and prizes may also be given out throughout different on- and off-track championships.
In addition to a brief trophy, the F1 world champion additionally wins the choice to race with the #1 race quantity on their swimsuit, helmet and automobile. The one digit is reserved for the present champion, and Verstappen has raced underneath it since selecting up his first crown in 2021.
In fact, drivers can select to race underneath #1 or their very own quantity, with drivers like Lewis Hamilton protecting with their very own race quantity.
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