Mercedes have denied claims that Lewis Hamilton gave his third-place trophy away to a fan at the FIA prizing-giving ceremony on Friday in protest of the governing body’s decision to investigate Silver Arrows team principal Toto Wolff and F1 academy boss Susie Wolff.
The FIA recently dropped their investigation into the couple following allegations that they were sharing confidential information between them. It had been claimed by Business F1 magazine that team bosses raised concerns about the Wolffs discussing confidential details regarding their respective employers.
Yet all nine of Mercedes’ F1 rivals later came out and denied making any complaints to the FIA. Hamilton voiced his displeasure at the FIA for launching an investigation off the back of the report, deeming their response “unacceptable”, and after one fan claimed he had been gifted the Brit’s third-place trophy some supporters began to speculate online whether it had been done in protest.
“Hello. I was at the Gala yesterday. Lewis Hamilton gave me the award and left. I have the prize at home now,” wrote the fan on X, accompanied by a picture of an FIA trophy.
However, Mercedes claim this is not the case, adding that Hamilton left the award with officials. “Just to clarify some of the speculation on social media regarding Lewis’ P3 trophy,” a statement from the Brackley-based team began.
“Immediately after leaving the stage, and as has been done at previous prize-givings, Lewis accepted the offer from officials for the trophy to be sent on to the team and therefore left it in their care. We can confirm he did not give the trophy to anyone ‘as a gift’ as has been speculated.”
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This comes after Hamilton expressed his anger with the FIA for “questioning the integrity” of “one of the most incredible female leaders” in the sport (Mrs Wolff).
“Disappointing to see the governing body questioning the integrity of one of the most incredible female leaders we’ve had in our sport, without questioning, without any evidence, then just saying sorry at the end, that’s just unacceptable,” he fumed.
“There is a constant fight to really improve diversity and inclusion within the industry, but it seems there are certain individuals within the leadership of the FIA that every time we make a step forward they’re trying to pull us back and that has to change.”
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