Formula One Drivers' Helmets?

Question

Don't you think they have got really boring and similar? I remember you used to be able to tell a driver by his helmet... and there were some classic designs...

Damon Hill - used his father's design, London Rowing Club, iconic image

Nelson Piquet - original and unique to him with the teardrop..

Ayrton Senna - he chose his yellow helmet to reflect his Brazilian nationality, and to warn drivers when they looked in their mirrors that Senna was coming!

Rubens Barrichello - bright and unmistakeably him

David Coulthard - brilliant take on the Scottish flag

Now they are just boring, especially Kovalainen and Raikkonen, who seemed to chose their latest ones on how well it merges into the car... if they both drove for the same team you would not tell them apart!! I like Nelson Piquet Jr's because its based on his dads, as is Nakajima's, I like Lewis modelling his on Senna's too.. but mostly they are fairly unremarkable

Comments?? and suggestions as to your favourite driver helmets...

Answer 1

I like Alonso's, to my recollection, its sky blue with white stars.

Raikkonens helmet at ferrari i think is cool, his logo is on the top, and its got a damask ppattern on the lower half, with iceman written in the same font. But compared to the olden days, yes they are pretty mundane.

Hmm both of the finns switched their colours to match the car. Well F1 is about the glamour really.

DC's is still the best though (and I'm not even scottish).

Answer 2

I saw one of those Inside F1 segments before one of the races last year and i remember the drivers being interviewed said that helmets were a way for them to show their personality, but i really don't see any evidence of that.

Just like you and many other F1 fans, i have also noticed that many of today's drivers helmet designs share the same colors and themes as the rest of their car.  I guess that may be partly to all the boring F1 drivers on the grid with no imagination or creativity and the the sponsors wanting more space to stamp their logo's on.

Answer 3

i like Felipe's helmet even though you might say its idea is not original (plagiarism of senna's)...

Answer 4

Id love to see charicatures of the drivers painted onto the tops of the helmets

Answer 5

Dan, you've hit the nail on the (helmeted) head.

I tried to think of a single current drivers helmet and struggled. Coulthard, Fisichella, Jenson and Lewis are all pretty distinguishable and the first that sprung to mind.  Personally, I feel Schumacher changing his iconic German flag colours to red to honour Ferrari was a turning point in driver and team branding. Heikki's McLaren colour-scheme helmet is indistinguishable from the car!

As for favourite helmets, Schumacher's 95 skidplate - classic and like Senna's it served as a warning sign to get the f*ck outta my way! I have a tiny model of it on my dressing table, it makes me smile everytime I look at it :-)   I liked Gilles and Jacques Villenueve's too.

Damon Hill's was classically simple and went very well with the beautiful Rothman's branded Williams Renault he drove at the time.

The mere fact we can have this discussion about helmets gone by only serves to emphasise how dull they all are now, eh?

Answer 6

You have a point Dan. It's funny that in the days when there wasn't the painting technology that we have now that there seemed to be simple yet distinctive designs, now though some of the drivers go for really complex and intricate designs that are virtually works of art up close but from a distance look like a smudge in a blur factory, Kimi's is a prime example of this.

Personally I like DC's saltire design.

Answer 7

One major change through the years is how much more the drivers compartment is enclosed. All the drivers you mentioned...Senna, Hill, Piquet and others, drove when you could still see the drivers shoulders and full helmet. Now you can only see the top part of the drivers helmet while racing.

All-time favorite, Jackie Stewart.

I always loved Mario Andretti's silver helmet and red stripe.

I also loved John Watson's silver helmet and dayglo red wrap around the visor, base of the helmet and stripe along the top.

Clay Regazzoni had a cool design too. Red and white with the Swiss cross at the front.

Answer 8

I agree that now helmet designs are all "same-y". Changing your design every season (or even more often) just goes against tradition for me.

As to my personal favourites, this is what I put for a similar question 3 months ago: Nelson Piquet and Pedro Diniz.

Nelson: http://www.finallap.net/pics/889.jpg

Pedro: http://www.autosport.net/home/topitems/p...

I like Nelson's because 1) he was my hero and 2) it's a lot more creative than 99.9% of helmet designs. I like Pedro's because 1) it's simple and 2) it was modelled on his hero's helmet (Carlos Pace).

Answer 9

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I agree Dan. I have difficulty in telling them apart outside the car these days (Jeez, I'm starting to sound like some old codger!)

I like Cool Tarts too. Simple and effectively unmistakably original, except that Stewart had something very similar....

There's more of a sense of fun in MotoGP. Rossi's FACE was so good. Made me grin every time i saw it.

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Answer 10

I dislike most helmets worn by racers, 2 or 4 wheels, the reason being they're so overloaded you end up not paying attention.

You just remember a color all those cr@p designs merge into.

My helmet is plain white, if I ever did something on it it would be something that made sense, one thing, not 100 different ideas and try to fit them all in.

Trying to fit the Devil, the national flag, the sunset and the sunrise, a greener world, a national hero and you whole family photo, well, they don't all fit onto one helmet please thank you, from a little distance they all look like a copycat Picasso drawn by a 4 year old.

So, err, I like none, except perhaps Coulthard's, the Scotish flag dominates the helmet, it makes sense.