Lewis Hamilton felt unmoved after clinching the FIA Pole Trophy at last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, believing it to be “not particularly exciting”.
For the 2014 season, the FIA introduced a new Pole Trophy that would be awarded to the best qualifier across the course of the F1 season.
The thinking behind the move was to offer drivers a greater reward for their Saturday performances, as well as giving them more to fight for towards the end of the season when the championship may already be settled.
Last year’s Pole Trophy was won by Nico Rosberg at the penultimate race of the year in Brazil, but the fight for the 2015 award was settled in Belgium last weekend after just 11 races.
Hamilton’s form in qualifying so far this year has been near-perfect as he has claimed ten pole positions, leaving Rosberg on one with eight races to go.
Despite wrapping up the FIA Pole Trophy, Hamilton was unmoved by it when speaking after the Belgian Grand Prix.
“The pole trophy is not particularly exciting but getting poles is definitely a great thing,” Hamilton said.
“Naturally winning the world championship is the goal. I would give up everything else, all the poles, the pole position trophy for the – yeah, you can have it, no problem – for the world championship so that’s really the goal.”
However, Hamilton remains pleased with his qualifying form so far in 2015, given that it had been one of his weakest areas in the title battle with Rosberg last year.
“I’m really happy with how the qualifying has gone this year,” Hamilton said. “It’s been a huge step for me and today the plan was to try and convert that pole position and the speed that I had in qualifying into the race.
“I feel like I did that and I’m sure that there will be areas to improve on which I will continue to try and work on.”
Hamilton will now be setting his sights on beating Sebastian Vettel’s record of 15 pole positions in one season, requiring six more in the final eight rounds.