{"id":880267,"date":"2026-09-02T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880267\/"},"modified":"2026-09-02T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T04:00:11","slug":"the-f1-trophy-made-out-of-dishes-plus-ferraris-changing-its-livery-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/880267\/","title":{"rendered":"The F1 trophy made out of dishes. Plus: Ferrari\u2019s changing its livery (again)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here<\/a> to receive Prime Tire directly in your inbox twice a week during the season and weekly in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Welcome back to Prime Tire, where today I\u2019m thinking about pasta and coffee at the Italian Grand Prix \u2014 and not for the reasons you\u2019d expect.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m Alex, and Luke Smith will be along later.<\/p>\n

Puzzling Prizes \u2026\u00a0for the Monza podium<\/p>\n

Once again, the topic I was going to lead this newsletter with (Luke\u2019s story on Ferrari\u2019s\u00a0homage to Michael Schumacher<\/a>) got pushed down the running order after an email dropped.<\/p>\n

Unlike when Cadillac\u00a0fired its team principal<\/a>\u00a0last month, this topic change is just very silly. And it involves crockery and tires.<\/p>\n

You see, F1 tire supplier Pirelli is the title sponsor for the 2026 Italian GP, which is also the company\u2019s home race.\u00a0As a result, Pirelli has supplied the trophy for the last six years in conjunction with the art gallery that occupies one of the company\u2019s former tire factories in Milan.<\/p>\n

In 2026, it has chosen a trophy design F1 fans won\u2019t forget in a hurry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s called FRAGILE (shouty caps not what comes to mind for the definition of that word!) and is the work of artistic duo Vedovamazzei (Stella Scala and Simeone Crispino).<\/p>\n

It is a pile of silvery cups and bowls. Obviously.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe commission was awarded to Vedovamazzei, the duo formed by Scala and Crispino, whose artistic practice combines irony with an ability to capture the contradictions and complexities of reality,\u201d Pirelli\u2019s news release said. \u201cTheir works often reinterpret everyday objects, highlighting the world\u2019s paradoxical aspects.<\/p>\n

\u201cFRAGILE is precisely a layered composition of household objects \u2014 cups and small bowls \u2014 that take on an unsteady-looking vertical form when stacked on top of each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trophy is made out of nylon powder that was \u201cpainted, galvanized, and polished until it became reflective,\u201d per Pirelli\u2019s news release.<\/p>\n

It continued: \u201cThe idea for the trophy stems from the ancient tradition of passing a celebratory cup from hand to hand. It served as a large drinking vessel, creating a sense of shared celebration and festivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

I both love and loathe it.<\/p>\n

It really pricks the absurdity of F1 nicely and adds a sense of normality that is so often lacking in a world of high-tech machines and big-money deals.\u00a0Yet it also seems wildly out of place, given F1\u2019s \u201cPiranha Club<\/a>\u201d ethos is all about lionizing the lives of stars, of which most of us can only dream.<\/p>\n

Anyway, myself, Luke, Madeline Coleman and Patrick Iversen will be creating our own versions to include in one of next week\u2019s Prime Tire sends.\u00a0We look forward to reading your gentle artistic critiques of our creations. (And as a reminder, if you ever have questions about F1, send them to us\u00a0here<\/a>!)<\/p>\n

Schumacher Special: Ferrari honors its five-time champ<\/p>\n

The Monza trophy isn\u2019t the only special-looking F1 thing this weekend, as, for the fifth year in a row, Ferrari is arriving at its home race with\u00a0unique merch to flog\u00a0a special car color scheme.<\/p>\n

For the Italian team, this annual tradition really got going in 2022 \u2014 one year after F1 informally relaxed its rules around teams running special car liveries.<\/p>\n

Teams still have to get special permission to deviate from their usual season-long designs, and work around the FIA\u2019s specific rules about logos and driver numbers, but approval is much more forthcoming than it used to be.<\/p>\n

The reason why is wrapped up in my struck-through sarcasm about merch above:\u00a0Both the FIA and the F1 organization recognize the commercial gains\u00a0from allowing teams to either promote specific sponsors with one-off designs at certain races or bring in more consumer cash around limited releases of accompanying merch.<\/p>\n

In 2022 and 2023, Ferrari did this by adding yellow splashes to its cars and driver race kit for the Monza race. In 2024, its Italian GP car looked the same as other races that year, but its drivers were adorned with special black kit.<\/p>\n

At this race in 2025, the team ran what is basically its\u00a02026 livery<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 an homage to legendary Ferrari driver Niki Lauda, with extra white around the cockpit as the team had on Lauda\u2019s 312T car from 1975, on the 50th anniversary of the Austrian\u2019s famous first title triumph that year.<\/p>\n

In 2026, Ferrari\u2019s Monza special is honoring one of its other champions with two or more F1 titles:\u00a0Schumacher<\/a>.\u00a0Specifically, the German driver\u2019s victory in the Italian GP in 1996, when he won in front of the tifosi during his\u00a0first appearance at Monza in Ferrari<\/a>\u00a0red.<\/p>\n

The 1996 Ferrari was\u00a0terrible\u00a0(due to problems with its steering and aerodynamics, plus poor reliability). But its clean livery and gold-colored wheels raise wonderful memories of Schumacher\u2019s heroics to win two more races that year (including a sensational first Ferrari victory in the soaking 1996 Spanish GP) for Ferrari fans.<\/p>\n

If you want to learn more about how teams\u00a0plan and produce one-off car liveries<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 including clearing space on their regular designs for coming changes that might mean more paint or stickers are needed, keeping in mind strictly controlled car weight \u2014 Madeline has an\u00a0excellent explainer here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, over to Luke for an update on some actual news of consequence in the F1 world today.<\/p>\n

Inside the Paddock with Luke Smith<\/p>\n

If your social media algorithm looks anything like mine the last few weeks, you may have seen some posts promoting tickets and packages for the final two races of the F1 season in Qatar and Abu Dhabi.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s despite ongoing uncertainty over those events even happening amid the war in the Middle East,\u00a0which has already forced\u00a0the cancellation<\/a>\u00a0of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia races back in April.<\/p>\n

F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has already confirmed that a further decision on the remaining Middle East races will be\u00a0made in mid-September<\/a>. If they can\u2019t go ahead, F1 will return to Europe \u2014 most likely\u00a0Imola in Italy<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 to conclude its season with just one replacement round.<\/p>\n

So why does it seem like business as usual for Qatar and Abu Dhabi?\u00a0Because, as of right now, nothing\u2019s been said firmly to the contrary. They\u2019ll proceed as planned until told otherwise, and that includes selling tickets.<\/p>\n

In a Qatar Motorsport and Motorcycle Federation Q&A, its president, Abdul Rahman bin Abdul Latif Al Mannai, said plans were continuing for both F1 and MotoGP races in late 2026. A report from The Race suggests the latter is already on the\u00a0verge of being canceled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, we cannot stop the plans,\u201d said Al Mannai. \u201cWe have to be ready. We are taking it one step at a time to see the situation and assess. But so far, everything is good. Everything is a go-ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

The\u00a0next couple of weeks<\/a>\u00a0should bring clarity on F1\u2019s plans for the end of the year.<\/p>\n

Back to you, Alex.<\/p>\n

Outside the Points<\/p>\n

\u2757Red Bull is hiring<\/a>\u00a0former Aston Martin stalwart engineer Tom McCullough to be its new head of racing (essentially chief engineer for its race team) beginning in 2027.<\/p>\n

\ud83c\uddec\ud83c\udde7 McLaren\u2019s Lando Norris is the latest big hitter to sign on with his current team for many more years to come. Luke has the\u00a0full story here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u203c\ufe0f And, staying with McLaren, the team is finally set to race\u00a0its version<\/a>\u00a0of Ferrari\u2019s\u00a0rotating rear wing<\/a>, which it has dubbed the \u201cH-Wing\u201d to make an airline sponsor happy, but which also evokes memories of its actual\u00a0\u201cF-Duct\u201d innovation<\/a>\u00a0from 2010. Pat tells me there\u2019s already a\u00a0Star Wars ship<\/a>\u00a0called the \u201cH-Wing,\u201d so probably best we leave things at that!<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udceb Love Prime Tire? Check out The Athletic\u2019s other newsletters<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prime Tire Newsletter | This is The Athletic\u2019s F1 newsletter. Sign up here to receive Prime Tire directly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-880267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}