Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team’s British star George Russell has been officially presented with the Hawthorn Memorial Trophy at Silverstone.

Motorsport UK Chair, David Richards CBE presented the 25-year-old with the prestigious trophy live on Sky Sports F1’s The F1 Show in front of the passionate home crowd on Thursday evening.

The Hawthorn Memorial Trophy is awarded annually by Motorsport UK to the most successful British or Commonwealth driver in the previous year’s FIA Formula 1 World Championship. Russell enjoyed a stellar year in 2022, taking seven podiums throughout the course of the season, including a second place at Zandvoort and a maiden Grand Prix victory in Brazil on his way to fourth place in the Drivers’ Championship.

Russell joins a list of greats including Sir Lewis Hamilton, Sir Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Sir Jackie Stewart, Alan Jones, Damon Hill, Nigel Mansell, Jacques Villeneuve, and Jenson Button. Last year’s winner Hamilton is the most successful recipient of the award, claiming the accolade 11 times.

The trophy was first presented by the Hawthorn family in memory of Mike Hawthorn, who became Britain’s first Formula 1 World Champion in 1958 but tragically died in a road accident a year later.

Across the 62-years of the trophy’s history, 19 different drivers have won the honour, and on 24 of those occasions the recipient was also World Champion in the same year.

The hallmarked gilt and silver trophy, designed by Goldsmiths’ freeman K. Lesson, features a Union Jack and chequered flags and is mounted on a wooden pedestal.

Images: Dom Gibbons Photography