F1 champion didn't get to keep his trophy, he had to buy his own for £35k

It's a hard life being an F1 world champion. First there are all the sacrifices you have to make to be at the very peak of your sport, and then when you hit the top of the world...you have to buy your own trophy.

Of course, if you're a champion then you're a champion forever (er, unless you're a drug cheat and get seven Tour de France wins wiped off the books, sorry Lance Armstrong), but it's nice to have something around the house to show that.

This is all because the F1 drivers' championship trophy, like all great sporting trophies, is just that. One single trophy. This isn't like trophies for race wins, made fresh and special every year.

Unfortunately, unlike (for example) the Stanley Cup, the trophy doesn't have the weight of history of being handed to every champion in the sport. Bernie Ecclestone commissioned it just some 30 years ago in 1995, made of solid sterling silver, 24ct gold plate and enamel.

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How much the F1 drivers' trophy actually costs

The trophy bears the signature of every F1 champion since 1950, spiralling upward as the decades go on. It isn't due to run out of room for another 25 years or so, at which point what they do is still unclear.

As such...yeah, you don't get to keep this. If you want something for your mantlepiece, as Jenson Button discussed recently, you have to shell out £35k to get an official replica made. Or at least, you can complain and get your manager to buy it for you.

"You know," he said, "I got the trophy for the year for when I won the world championship. You get to look at it, and then if you don't win it the next year you have to give it back, because that's the one trophy that travels to the current world champion.

"I had to buy a world championship replica trophy, and I was like 'I'm not doing that'. I've just spent a whole year working on winning that trophy. So, my manager was kind enough to buy it for me. I think the replica was about £35,000, it's a lot of cash to fork out for something you've won already."

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