By: During the most important week of the year for Italian fans, the Monza Grand Prix, newspapers and social media were abuzz with discussion about the trophy that would be lifted by the winner at the end of the race.
“FRAGILE is a very particular trophy,” Andrea Kimi Antonelli described it on Thursday, during the day set aside for interviews. It was born from the creative vision of Vedovamazzei, the artistic duo comprising Stella Sala and Simeone Crispino, founded in Naples in 1991. Pirelli welcomed the artists into its motorhome, giving them the opportunity to present their work to the media who had come to cover the event, including us at Formula1.it.
The trophy is simply a collection of kitchen objects, stacked on top of one another in a kind of precarious balance that symbolises the fragility of victory.
The concept of FRAGILE victory that fascinated Antonelli
Italian driver Andrea Kimi Antonelli did not know the idea behind the trophy’s design, and on Thursday this aspect greatly excited him. Unfortunately, starting from 19th place, he believed it would be very difficult to lift the trophy. Instead, having shown pace that was beyond anyone else, he delivered a display of pure dominance on Sunday, climbing to the top step of the podium and claiming the most important trophy of the entire event.
The trophy symbolises the fragility of victory, but there was little or nothing fragile about Kimi’s triumph. After 15-16 laps, he was already battling Verstappen and Russell for the race lead. He also managed to beat his team-mate, getting the strategy right and outclassing him in every respect (a shame, given that George may well have delivered his best performance of the season, read here).
The moment Antonelli may have felt FRAGILE closest
Perhaps the only moment when the victory was in doubt came a few laps from the finish, when Kimi decided to attack his team-mate a little too optimistically and ended up in the gravel at the exit of the Prima Variante. Despite making a mistake, Antonelli remained composed: he let the car slide across the stones and returned to the track, quickly managing to catch and decisively overtake his garage-mate.
Who knows whether the Italian thought of the trophy and the fragility of victory at that moment. A single lapse of concentration, in an otherwise perfect race, could have undone all the work he had put in up to that point.
Cover and in-article photos by Luca Martini / WHYOUT Images
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