So I was cruising on F1 Fanatic this morning, and I noticed that Robert Kubica has gone and changed his helmet design - to black and yellow. Renault colours. And Vitaly Petrov was also showing of his design, which is thankfull unchanged from his GP2 days. So this got me wondering: who has the best helmet? So I'm going to make a poll ...

Jenson Button - JB and Union Jack design
Lewis Hamilton - yellow with red blue and green ribbons
Michael Schumacher - red German flag design
Nico Rosberg - spiky blue and yellow with white bands
Sebastian Vettel - Red Bull silver and mauve
Mark Webber - red, blue and white with yellow crown
Felipe Massa - dark blue with yellow-green X design
Fernando Alonso - light blue with red and yellow slashes
Nico Hulkenberg - orange, silver and white
Rubens Barrichello - white with blue crown and red patches
Robert Kubica - orange and blue with Polish flag design (now yellow and black)
Vitaly Petrov - stylied white, blue and red Russian flag design
Adrian Sutil - a mess, whatever it is
Vitantonio Liuzzi - red and green zig-zag
Sebastien Buemi - Red Bull mauve and silver with yellow crown and base
Jaime Alguersuari - silver with red, yellow and dark blue
Jarno Trulli - burgundy with silver
Heikki Kovalainen - orange, silver and black
Bruno Senna - similar (but not identical) to Aytron Senna's
Jose Maria Lopez (very hard to find a good, current shot) - appars to be light blue and red
Timo Glock - orange and black with German flag design
Lucas di Grassi - green with white spikes and orange outline
Pedro de la Rosa - simple black, yellow and red design
Kamui Kobayashi - red with blue curls

Yes, I'm aware some of these helmets - like Kovalainen's - are likely to change because they're with new teams. However, I'm not psychic, and so cannot say what their 2010 lids will look like. And yes, I had to break the poll up because I only had twenty options per question.

Buttons is good. Alonso has nice colours but the design is cruddy.

Senna has a good one to.

Simple is best.

Alguersuari goes back to his yellow/red design:

Not bad. Not bad at all. If only he was a good a driver as his new design looks.

Similar tastes. Schumacher's helmet would look good in red or black/silver,so voted likewise. Button's helmet comes in a close second (looks great with the Vodafone stickers),followed by Alonso's. I'd rank Vettel too if he stuck to one paintjob for the entire season,which seems unlikely.

For purely nostalgic reasons-MS,followed by Bruno Senna's. Voted for MS' helmet.

I have to confess, I'm not a fan of Bruno Senna's design. I know, it's very similar to his uncle's - but that's exactly why I'm not a fan. I know Bruno has more claim to it than anyone else might, but to me at least, he desn't have much of one. A helmet is a driver's identity, the easiest way to pick him out. It should be original, and unique. If he wants to pay tribute to his uncle, I'm all for it ... but I think a mustard-coloured crowd with two dark blue stripes across it would be enough.

Voted Alonso and di Grassi. But I also like the designs of Luizzi, Petrov, Webber and Senna.

Heidfeld came up with some pretty helmets too. DC's design looked cool too. And Graham Hill's (and Damon's replica) is about my all time favorite.

I've always liked Webber's lids - simple, clean and almost old skool compared to most of the designs that adorn helmets these days.

Not a fan of Alguersuari (actually I've never noticed his helmet before today), but the design looks very nice:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/wp-content/uplo...r5_launch-5.jpg

Button and Felipe also have quite original ones...

No option for Ron Jeremy?



I actually like kubica's new design..although is it not a sort of Slate Blue and Yellow rather than black?

Massa's or Button's, probably. I also like the colours of Alonso's but find it a bit haphazard (although most of the haphazardness is around the bottom, so it should look good in the cockpit).

Di Grassi's is maybe the best of the new ones, although it would be better just green and white. In that photo it looks a little like he's been sitting behind someone's dying engine.

As a ex. mega di Grassi fan can I tell you that you got wrong helmet for di Grassi.

The ars****e is going to have this helmet in F1 - 2010: http://tinyurl.com/yzepa5l




And Timo Glock is going to have this one - http://cdn.virginracing.com/1260895830/gal...timo_helmet.jpg

That's an improvement for Glock (I love white and gold combinations).

I don't think he's trying to pay tribute to his uncle as such as I remember seeing him use this design in karting whilst Ayrton was still alive. Family members often have different variations of a similar design I've found.

I really like Massa's and Hamilton's designs the best out of the lot...

Its quite a relief to read the content of this thread after the initial shock I recieved from the title..

Rubens Barrichello. Simple and memorable.

And remember Schumi's helmet isn't anymore german flag design, I think he changed it in 2005 or 2006, it's all-red.

I like matching helmets.

Its hard to pick without Kimi or Nick on the grid now, though. Those two always had great designs.

So probably Kubica's or Alonso's.

Hahahahaha, awesome!

From this year I say JBs, very nice colours, I also like LdG one and Vettel's chess (the simple one). Massa, Alonso, Kubica have nice ones, I like very much the black and white version of Kubica's helmet.

When you consider the thread title, the OP's nick is a bit worrying too ...

Marco Simoncelli.

Captain may I say this is an excellent thread, very possibly my favourite on here. I adore helmet designs.
My faves from the poll : Massa -yellow, contrasts with car, basically always same design which gives him identity and nice visor
Bruno Senna (I like his design better than his uncle's if I'm honest. A nice bit of nostalgia and it looks superb. Senna's probably shades it overall as sometimes Felipe's can look a bit messy.


I really don't go for helmets that have national colours. It doesn't feel as personal and I'm British but I don't suddenly go all patriotic when I see Button's helmet (I am warming to Jense slightly but never his helmet when it is the Union Jack)
I dislike it when the helmets change to match the car. It shows no imagination and I feel for casual fans. Liveries and helmets are the easiest way to identify your favourites and if they change every season it is just a right pain.

I agree. I really like Glocks Virgin Racing helmet design...I guess the helmet is going to match the VR-01.
Let´s wait and see on Wednesday.

I'm a huge fan of Liuzzi's, Webber's and Massa's helmets. All three are distinctive and personalized. And even though it's simple, Schumi's all-red helmet looks awesome in that silver Mercedes!

I don't. I think a driver's helmet is his identity, since it's the easiest way to pick him out. I have no issue when drivers run a special one-time-only affair for their home event - especially since the money they raise usually goes to charity - but when they're constantly changing over the course of a season (I'm looking at you, Rubens Barrichello), it jsut seems to lack something. But to me, simply adopting a sponsor's or a team's colours takes any originality out of it. JB's helmet looked good in day-glo yellow and black last season, but I prefer his original design. Look at Vitaly Petrov's helmet: it's white, blue and red in a stylised representation of the Russian flag. He's now got a black-on-yellow RENAULT label across the top of his hemet, but if he changed his design to be completely yellow and black, it would lose all meaning.

Thats a pretty ugly grid of helmets to be honest...

In general too most have way too many things going on...and way too much much mettalics and shading...

I would say Schumacher's, Nico's, Hamilton's, and Button's are the most memorable...

God awful lot, so be honest. The only one I can stand is Liuzzi's, I would like also Senna's without the horrible red Santander stripe. Rosberg, Suttil and Hamilton need to get an eye doctor examination, simply dreadful

Like I said, Sutil's is a mess. But I think Lucas di Grassi wins the award for butt-ugliness with his new lid. Which is a shame, because his old one was simply fantastic.

I love that Rubens switches up his helmet design throughout the year. The core style of his helmet has always been very classy in my opinion. Simple and sharp. I think it's fun that he will often add some different colors or highlights throughout the year, such as when he had the Massa tribute on top of his helmet beginning in Valencia. He won that race!

I also like the new black patch on top of his helmet at Williams. Very sharp!

I was a fan of recognizable dark green helmet of laffitte
but for me the best helemts was the helmet of the past..always the same trough the year..like patrese...or senna...mansell..hunt
and for personal reasons I like also this helmet
http://www.dindocapello.com/foto/2006/LeMa...-DindoCs824.jpg

Kubica 2010

Really slick with the R30's livery.

I think that the drivers helmets now a days a too 'busy' there are too much sponsorship on them, and they have started to change them in ways that drivers of yesteryear did not. I do not particulary like any of the current drivers designs, were I to pick one I would go with Hamilton.

But honestly I am vague on how even that look, showing how the helmets are no longer an identifier as they used to be.

Michael Schumacher much as I think he was and is great should NOT have changed his colours when he became a Ferrari driver, to me his helmet is the one he started with, not the one he ended his Ferrari career with.

I liked Coulthards, as it was somewhat like the old type and easily indentifiable.

Wholeheartedly agree. FAR too busy. The Kubica yellow/black seems to be the best of the lot; a coherent design, which stands out as being more memorable and distinctive than most of the others. But why bother with the two tone effect generated by those stochastic pinstripes and red highlighting? Solid blocks of colour would have a lot more impact.

Liuzzi's gets some points as well, OK the shapes are a bit too complicated but again at least the design is distinctive.

But compare with the past. Imagine Senna's helmet, Damon Hill's, Coulthard's, Jarier's, Depailler's, Reutemann's, Caffi's, Forini's, Heyer's, practically anyone's, front or back of the grid. Once you've seen them, they are very easy to remember. Simple, effective designs.

Now imagine Kovalainen's. It is impossible.

What's annoying is that drivers deliberately change them to obliterate any sense of coherence. Michael Schumacher and Alonso both had very bold designs when first coming into F1. Now they are just smears of colour.

Voted Kubica... The black one is suberb...

Schumacher's lid just doesn't work to that car's livery, and that's a fact.

Alonso's design looks very clean and logical, and light-blue is my favourite colour. That's my number #1.

I also really like Hülkenberg's design, which is a simple but effective design well-suited to the Williams. Barrichello and Button also have great designs IMO.

As usual, Hamilton, Sutil and Webber have awful helmet liveries, but Sutil easily takes the price for the worst... every year.

I picked Massa, but I really like Barrichello's, Glock's, and Alonso's.

Wow, Kubica's new helmet is sweet.

It's interesting that the top five most popular helmets are all from some of the most popular drivers: Button, Hamilton, Schumacher, Alonso, and Kubica.

HHF, even in retirement.

Same here. After the race I might go away and quickly forget which helmet is who's. Those lids are all just too loaded.

A little more original like this one would be good fun

I was thinking the same thing. Leave it to a guy named Cap'n Tighpants to start a thread about which driver has the best looking 'helmet'. Priceless.

Best

Alonso
Webber
Massa


Worst

Hamilton because it is a cheap gimmicky copy...... tiresome

Ooh, WHAT a surprise.

You know Barrichello's is a copy as well? I suppose though that's totally different. And Bruno Senna's is an almost slavish copy? I suppose that's also different in some bizarre way. And the Red Bull drivers all copy each other? Again, somehow that's completely different again. No, the only one you hate as being a cheap gimmicky copy is that of the one driver you hate. Even though it's actually not a copy, but a homage.

Please... take your fanboyism elsewhere. I gave my opinion on the topic not someones opinion

It's not ME showing the fanboyism, it's the person whose detestation of a driver goes so far that he even detests his helmet, even when someone points out that the facts on which said detestation is based are incorrect and properly apply to other drivers.

Vettel

My vote

That was easy. Of course Kubica new helmet.

Bob Kubica

Possibly a new lid for Jarno or Heikki???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idtAvNkaMBQ

0:40s in, someone getting into the Lotus for a seat fitting. When they get out, it would look to be Trulli in my opinion. Not very clear though.