Nihad Nesirli- the man accused of stealing the 3rd-place award given to Lewis Hamilton at the FIA Awards Gala, recently took to X to issue a justification behind the entire incident. Nesirli said it was disappointing to see people calling him a “thief” before having all the details.
Shining more light on the events of the day, Nesirli wrote that Hamilton mistook him for an FIA official. When the fan asked the Briton whether he could take the trophy, Hamilton thought he was returning the trophy to the authorities and told him, “Yes.” Thus, Nesirli, who asked genuinely, took the trophy home.
However, people already took to various social media platforms to accuse Nesirli of stealing the trophy. Various photos also showed Nesirli posing with Max Verstappen‘s championship trophy, calling for further unwarranted blame.
As for the trophy of the seven-time world champion, Hamilton had earlier left it standing on a table after the press conference as a sign of protest against the FIA. The authority earlier launched an investigation on Susie Wolff over alleged privacy breach claims, but a lack of substantial evidence meant they had to quickly drop the charges.
Before the Lewis Hamilton incident, Nesirli had another run-in with F1
While the trophy incident was certainly a unique one, it surprisingly wasn’t the first time Nihad Nesirli was on the wrong side of the F1 laws. Two years ago, he was at the helm of another weird incident, this time involving the F1 Medical Car.
In June 2021, Nesirli broke into the Baku circuit with a bicycle via the open and forgotten barriers. Nesirli, alongside a friend, took photographs with the F1 Medical and Security vehicles and posted the same on their social media handles.
Coming back to the Hamilton incident, Mercedes issued a statement on Hamilton’s behalf, clarifying the 38-year-old’s intentions behind leaving the trophy on the table. “Lewis [Hamilton] 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.” The team is now making the necessary arrangements to bring the trophy back into their care.
