Ayrton Senna’s iconic helmet, all yellow surrounded by green bands in the colors of his country Brazil, is undoubtedly the best known. His attachment to his country was thus displayed. For several years, F1 drivers have used this object differently. This weekend of September 10-11, for the Italian Grand Prix, the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr will wear a special yellow Modena helmet, in tribute to the roots of the Prancing Horse team.
Completing the set for this weekend’s #ItalianGP
What a look, @Charles_Leclerc #essereFerrari pic.twitter.com/5CkVrIvtJk
— Scuderia Ferrari (@ScuderiaFerrari) September 8, 2022
Two blue and yellow bands on a simple white background, a dove, universal symbol of peace, the slogan “no war”. We are not in one of the many demonstrations of support for Ukraine, since the invasion of the country by Russia in February, but indeed on the track of the international circuit of Sakhir, in Bahrain. The shimmering colors adorned the helmet of four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, during the last three days of pre-season testing, and during the first Grand Prix on the calendar. On this small round and innocuous object, the reflection of the horrors of the news: a tribute to the country and its citizens, a stand against the fighting and the dead, a vibrant tribute to peace. Like the action of the German, the helmet has become a medium of choice to share a little piece of them.
— Jens Munser Designs (@JMD_helmets) April 8, 2022
The helmet is a major object for a pilot. For the safety aspect, first, as a vital part for the protection of its physical integrity (resistance to a heat of 790 degrees, to a metal disc launched at 250 km/h…). “It’s what protects our head, above all, so it’s still a very important part”, assures Théo Pourchaire, Formula 2 driver at ART and member of the Sauber Academy. Inseparable from the history of motor racing, the helmet, made compulsory in 1952, has almost always accompanied road enthusiasts, adapting to progress. “It’s a very advanced object, which evolves all the time, which must be light, solid, aerodynamic”, continues the young driver. Cloth headgear and leather hoods gradually gave way to the reinforced full-face helmets we know today.
Over time, the helmet has mostly become a way for pilots to show who they are. “A pilot’s helmet is his identity”sums up Adrien Paviot, designer of helmets for several F1 drivers. “It may be the last element in which he can still express himself, share his personality, who he is.” Where the racing suit is produced by the team, “the helmet is the only piece of equipment on which they are allowed to use their own design”abounds Marc Jans, expert in sports collectibles.
Pilots often use designs that recall their flag, something personal, or a sports idol. Lando Norris dedicated his design to his childhood hero, Valentino Rossi. Max Verstappen has a Dutch lion, linked to the national football team. And perhaps the most famous is that of Ayrton Senna with the colors of the flag of Brazil.
Marc Jans, expert in sports collectablesat franceinfo: sport
Color or particular symbol in support, the pilots transpose their personality on their head. Théo Pourchaire is no exception. “My helmet is mainly yellow, it’s my color, it’s my identity. I’ve had almost the same design since I started”he says. “F1 drivers often already have an identity in place that designers get to know”, says Adrien Paviot, who works with the young Frenchman. On his helmet, his initials, “T” and “P” on the side, and a crossing tricolor French flag, are added to the fluorescent colors.
In recent seasons, helmet design has taken on a new dimension. It has become so important that pilots now make presentation videos at the start of the seasonwhich affect tens of thousands of fans. “The helmet paintings were really boosted by social networks, which reinforced the image side”, notes Valentin Belgy, specialized painter. They also inspire the rest of the sports world. At the Beijing Olympics earlier this year, Canadian short-track skater Charles Hamelin competed with a helmet similar to that of his idolLewis Hamilton, purple tint and golden strokes.
In 2020, the FIA repealed its rule, introduced five years earlier, banning drivers from using more than two helmet designs each season, on the grounds that they had become too difficult to discern. Two years later, freed from the constraint, the pilots have taken a liking to multiplying the temporary special designs, for the Grand Prix at home, on particularly appreciated tracks… The first weekend of December 2021, George Russell was thus presented in the paddock of Jeddah with a new dark blue and flocked helmet to pay tribute to Frank Williams, the founder of his team, who died a few days earlier. During the few night races on the calendar, several drivers choose to wear a “chrome” design that is particularly bright in the dark. All occasions are good for propose a new version of the object.
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Helmets have above all become a way for drivers to share their opinions, in a paddock where speaking is often smooth and controlled. Lewis Hamilton made an impression with his rainbow design, in support of the LGBT community, sported at the end of 2021. Through his start-of-season helmet, Sebastian Vettel publicly positioned against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. With the new popularity of the discipline, the drivers are watched by a large audience every race weekend, which offers them a privileged platform to exhibit their helmets and their ideas.
Vettel has also become a champion in this area. Since 2011, the team working with him has designed more than 170 helmets. The most recent embrace his new ecological, climatic and social convictions. From the “to-do list” of the world in Abu Dhabi in 2021 (“No more plastic pollution”, “Save the coral reefs”, “Be yourself”) to the high water alert in Miami in May (“First Grand Prix underwater? Act now or swim later”), the quadruple world champion makes his voice resound more than ever on his helmet, before retiring and leaving the discipline at the end of the season.
This echo sometimes goes so far as to feed social debates. In Montreal last June, Sebastian Vettel (still him) rode the first two days of the weekend with a helmet denouncing tar sands mining in Albertaqualified for “ecological crime” for its excessive release of greenhouse gases. The political power had reacted sharply, in particular through State Energy Minister Sonya Savage, thus reviving discussions on the ecological footprint in the country. What go beyond the framework of the paddock, and mark the new importance of helmets and their designs. Waiting for the next drawing that will attract all eyes.