10 replies to this topic

[Galko877]

I was always interested in driver helmet designs and what they mean for the drivers. There are those who like to change their design once in a while, others never change it. For example, Jacques Villeneuve once said, in his opinion a helmet is the hallmark of a driver and because of that he would never change his.

This topic is about the symbols on driver helmets and about their meaning. I mean things like this:

The two cards on the back of Alonso's helmet refer to his two titles - and also on his passion for playing cards:



There are more tricky and less obvious ones though. For example, Michael Schumacher had some Chinese signs on his helmet. Those were the names of his family members. Here it's Mick - his son - (above the AMD sign) and Michael, on the other side it's Gina Maria and Corinna (his daughter and his wife).



This is Gina's name:



Michael has 7 stars on the top of his helmet, but those are NOT to represent his titles. They were there since his Benetton times (although the number of the stars varied at the beginning, there was five and I think even four, but he was still at Benetton when it became 7). IIRC he once commented he just likes the starry night sky, so that's why it's on his helmet.

As we know the Hill's family helmet was pretty special with the white stripes representing blades for the London Rowing Club. Damon Hill had this to say about it:

"Basicly I sport the same helmet colours as my father. It's very dark blue with white rowing bladed signifying the rowing club of Putney, London. Both my father and my mother were very succesful rowing athletes. They even met at the rowing club! I went for the same design for two reasons. First, I am proud of it, and second, you can spot this design from far away. I'm not into rowing, but the club are happy that I keep up the tradition"



I'm sure there are a lot more designs (present or past) which have more to them than the driver just liking those colors and shapes, which have some sort of symbolism. Which are they?

[BuzzingHornet]

Zanardi with his fruity designs springs to mind

JV's helmet has a stripe that is basically an upside down version of the one on his dad's helmet.

[kaivo]

Timo Glock helmets:

And this season helmet so far.

[Mila]

as discovered by another poster here years ago, the colors of JV's helmet seem to be based on the colors of a polo shirt worn by mother Joann.

http://atlasf1.autos...iew/horton2.jpg

[Rob]

I'm sure I read Olivier Panis saying that his design was based on something he saw in a Michel Vaillant comic!

[se7en_24]

It's a shame that you don't really get any really distinctive helmets these days, drivers seem to change them quite often. Whereas 10 years ago I could pretty much describe any driver on the grid's helmet (even Rosset's) I could probably describe 5 now, and that will probably reduce once the season starts and some drivers change again.;)

[Poltergeistes]

The one thing i hate about the helmets is the fact that every season it seems that more and more space is all advertising, but there has always been those, but now the teams have way too much, like the circle around every helmet thats for the team's main sponsors, now keep in mind that they used to have more sponsors signs below the visor, because thats the part that you cant see much anyway, now it all has gone up, for instance look at the helmets for the bmw drivers... it's like it's not kubicas helmet or nicks helmet, its just bmw's helmet, the only thing the drivers get to pick are the colors, the design itself is pretty much all bmw stuff, thats sad.

To me they should have a deal where the only part of the helmet where they could have the teams name and sponsor should be that strip on the up side of the visors which they already have. keep that and get rid of the rest, and put sponsors bellow the visor (on the chin line), and thats it, let the drivers themselves have that as their personalized signature, you gotta agree with what nick lauda says when alot of drivers don't have the charisma anymore, it's like the drivers themselves have become corporations, there's no space for each drivers unique style and persona.

Style and persona i think that's what is missing the most in formula 1 since the 80's. All drivers get told what their helmets should look like as well as how they should race, and people wonder why the sport is losing it's nostalgia season after season, it's because the drivers themselves are having less and less control over everything involving the races.

[Dolph]

Yes, you realize the team's effect on the helmet when the driver changes teams and the helmet also changes. Good example is Alonso's helmet in my mind. I first noticed this with team Jordan and Trulli's and HHF's helmets. Although it could be that FA is just changing the helmet based on what he feels like. I don't like drivers changing their helmets too much either. It makes the helmets' designs less important. Now its like computer wallpaper - some people change it every day.

[Poltergeistes]

Originally posted by Dolph
Yes, you realize the team's effect on the helmet when the driver changes teams and the helmet also changes. Good example is Alonso's helmet in my mind. I first noticed this with team Jordan and Trulli's and HHF's helmets. Although it could be that FA is just changing the helmet based on what he feels like. I don't like drivers changing their helmets too much either. It makes the helmets' designs less important. Now its like computer wallpaper - some people change it every day.

You gave the perfect example, when alonso went to mclaren he changed his helmet so drastically, it didnt even resemble his late designs when he won the championships, and you can notice that it was his call i guess he really was happy to drive the mclaren and making that move, he got it all silver like the cars color, while u see hamilton had no silver at all and he remains with the same design, and this year again fernando changed his helmet the main light blue now became yellow and red since the car lost the blue that it had. to me it sucks, he changes his helmet to match whatever car color he is driving.

I like glock's and massa's, althou i liked massa's helmet for the 2007 season more, to me that was one of the best designs in f1, in fact his and kimis are cool, they got cool designs, and i like it that hamilton doesnt really make drastic changes in his helmet, it's nice to be able to tell whos driving the car just by looking at the helmet, in alot of teams you cant tell these days.

[MaxScelerate]

Originally posted by Mila
as discovered by another poster here years ago, the colors of JV's helmet seem to be based on the colors of a polo shirt worn by mother Joann.

http://atlasf1.autos...iew/horton2.jpg

Hey, thanks for that bit of 'info'..

[DLaw]

Originally posted by Poltergeistes



You gave the perfect example, when alonso went to mclaren he changed his helmet so drastically, it didnt even resemble his late designs when he won the championships, and you can notice that it was his call i guess he really was happy to drive the mclaren and making that move, he got it all silver like the cars color, while u see hamilton had no silver at all and he remains with the same design, and this year again fernando changed his helmet the main light blue now became yellow and red since the car lost the blue that it had. to me it sucks, he changes his helmet to match whatever car color he is driving.

I like glock's and massa's, althou i liked massa's helmet for the 2007 season more, to me that was one of the best designs in f1, in fact his and kimis are cool, they got cool designs, and i like it that hamilton doesnt really make drastic changes in his helmet, it's nice to be able to tell whos driving the car just by looking at the helmet, in alot of teams you cant tell these days.

At Mac, Thought Alonso changed to the color scheme he used back in his karting days.