Pirelli was pressured to tug its one-off trophies from the Components 1 United States Grand Prix podium on the final minute after being made conscious of the similarity in design to a different product.
Autosport understands F1’s tyre producer obtained discover on Saturday and took the choice to not use the particular awards in Austin having not had time to analyze the matter absolutely.
Pirelli introduced forward of the weekend that ‘Heroo’ would make his debut on the rostrum on the Circuit of the Americas, the silhouette design being a collaboration between themselves and Italian designer Matteo Macchiavelli.
“In any dialogue about Components 1, it’s all the time the drivers who’re portrayed because the heroes and rightly so, as they race at over 300km/h, reclining in a made-to-measure cockpit squeezed right into a carbon fibre shell, with a 1000 horsepower Energy Unit and a cell holding simply over 100 litres of gasoline proper behind them,” the press launch learn.
“Whereas it’s true that the best degree of motorsport is way safer than earlier than, even in comparison with the fairly current previous, that takes nothing away from the heroic nature of the motive force’s function. So Pirelli has chosen as an instance this reality by having a relatively uncommon hero on the rostrum, within the form of the trophy offered to the highest three finishers within the FORMULA 1 PIRELLI UNITED STATES GRAND PRIX 2024 and it goes by the identify of Heroo!”
Pirelli trophies for the US GP
Photograph by: Pirelli
Race winner Leclerc was anticipated to boost a model of the human-shaped trophy that had a golden yellow helmet and was sprinkled with gold mud – whereas silver and titanium would have been used for second-placed Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen in third.
As an alternative, Leclerc was given a distinct, extra generic trophy that didn’t comprise the design.
In the meantime, Autosport has additionally been instructed that Sainz and Verstappen had been handed Pirelli wind tunnel tyres which had the wheel nuts engraved with their ending positions in addition to the American flag.
In its preliminary announcement, Pirelli additionally acknowledged that replicas of Heroo can be accessible, produced in a restricted manufacturing for collectors and followers.
It’s unclear if that may nonetheless be the case given the trophy was pulled for a possible breach of copyright.
The unique press launch has additionally since been pulled from Pirelli’s web site.