Pirelli, title sponsor of Formula 1 Pirelli Italian Grand Prix 2023, together with Pirelli HangarBicocca, brings for the third edition in a row contemporary art on the circuits of Formula 1. The trophy,  produced in four pieces – three for the drivers on the podium and one for the representative of the winning team – is called “Typhon” and was created by the Italian artist Ruth Beraha, whose artistic research explores in particular the themes of the relationship between human beings within society, inevitably stretched between strength and fragility, power and subordination.

The artist has transformed a mechanical element, the exhaust pipe of single-seaters, into organic shapes similar to snakes that recall Greek mythology. Younger son of Gaia and Tartarus, Typhon is a monster with extraordinary strength with a hundred snakes on his head, a symbol of the most violent manifestations of nature. The rider on the podium is imagined as a modern transposition of the Greek hero, who, in the moment of his victory, clutches in his hands the bundle of snakes – only momentarily tamed. This trophy is therefore to evoke the triumph of victory, but also its inevitable ephemeral and deceptive nature.

“I’m interested in unraveling the duality of the winners and losers imaginary,” said Beraha, “the idea that someone triumphs over someone who loses. I started from the figure of the driver on the podium and I imagined the trophy as a tamed and meek creature when the winner holds it in his hand, but that remains potentially always threatening and able to put everything back in play”.