Why were the original US GP trophies not awarded to the winners? Real reason explored

Ferrari grabbing a one-two finish at the United States Grand Prix was a surprise for F1 fans. However, the other thing that caught everyone's attention was the trophies handed to the winners on the podium.

Being the primary sponsor for the 2024 US Grand Prix, Formula 1's tire supplier Pirelli had created hype in the F1 community by showcasing special 'Heroo' trophies for the top three drivers of the race. Designed by Italian artist Matteo Macchiavelli, the new-age trophies featured humanoid figures wearing helmets with Mickey Mouse-like ears, carbon fiber-finished bodies, and articulating arms.

The only difference was the shade of the helmet, with first place getting a golden color, second featuring a silver shade, and third getting a blacked-out titanium-like finish. However, winners were handed traditional trophies on the podium after the race. This led to fans questioning the missing Heroo ones.

As reported by motorsport.com, a Pirelli spokesperson addressed this concern after the race. The iconic tire brand pulled trophies due to its close resemblance to collectibles created by another brand (Bearbrick). The US-based publication shared the news on X.

Here's a look at the post, captioned:

"This is why you didn't see the special USGP trophies 👀🏆"

Also, take a look at a seven-day-old post by motorsport.com from Instagram, showcasing the design:

"There’s a new 'Heroo' in Austin 🏆 Created by the Italian artist Matteo Macchiavelli, in collaboration with Pirelli."

While race winner Charles Leclerc was handed a silver-colored tube-like trophy, the rest of the podium finishers (Carlos Sainz and Max Verstappen) were awarded miniature tires similar to the one awarded for pole position after the Qualifying session.

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"Unfortunately, we can’t test in controlled conditions," - Pirelli's Mario Isola explained why designing new wet-weather Formula 1 tires is a challenging task

Formula 1's tire supplier Pirelli has been developing new wet-weather tires for the upcoming seasons. In an exclusive interview with GPblog.com, Mario Isola, the racing manager for the Italian brand explained the challenges faced in developing new intermediate and full wet tires.

''The most difficult part of our job is to develop the extreme wet tires or the intermediate tires on high-severity circuits because, unfortunately, we can’t test in controlled conditions. With the sprinklers wetting the track, only in Paul Ricard, the short circuit, and in Fiorano. And both those circuits are low-severity circuits," Isola commented.

"We can understand the warm-up, we can understand if the tyres are working well in low severity circuits, but then when you move to a high severity circuit with extreme wet, we realise that, for example, we overheat the tires easily because of the energy that you put into the tire and the heat generation that you have into the tire," he added, explaining the challenge.

Apart from the wet-weather ones, Pirelli is also developing new sets in line with the upcoming 2026 regulations.