58 replies to this topic

[Taxi]

according to this site, [ http://www.motor21.c...dt=315&nt=24126] fernando alonso will change his helmet decoration in 2007. what do you think? To me it's even a bit similar to raikkonen's stile. therefore I like more!

[Maldwyn]

Drivers helmet designs used to be very personal choices, with reasons behind the choice of colours and design. The design was alomost always kept kept throughout a drivers career.

I don't know if this will turn out to be Alonso's '07 lid, but if it is it's just another example of corporate image stamping out individuality.

[Ross Stonefeld]

uh..why does it have the German flag incorporated into it?

[lettuce]

v dull

[angst]

Quote

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
uh..why does it have the German flag incorporated into it?

Exactly what I thought. More likely to be Bernd Schneider's new helmet than Alonso's? I can't see Alonso dropping the Spanish flag and the colours of his region - he seems to be very proud of both.

[Limits]

Quote

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
uh..why does it have the German flag incorporated into it?

Becasue, Fernan.. mean Franz Alonso is Ger...

No, agree with Maldwyn, e helmets used to be a part of the drivers identity. A dear part also since it kept them alive. "Hanging up his helmet" was an expression saying the driver had retired. Now the helmet is part of the sponsors identity and does no longer feel like something belonging to the driver.

So the right question would be: The helmet Alonso will have to wear, do you like it?

[ensign14]

Best I can say is it's better than his Renault helmet, which was a total mess of blending corporate colours and the wobbly dildo imode logo. Alonso's helmet at Minardi was excellent - distinctive but simple - and, like MS, every change till this one has made it worse.

BTW, forget the German flag bit...why the Austrian?

[selespeed]

Quote

Now the helmet is part of the sponsors identity and does no longer feel like something belonging to the driver.

true. just look what renault did to nelsinhos helmet. just plastered a sponsors logo on the top half of the helmet and completely ruining the design.

[tidytracks]

I just don't buy it. Ross, Angst and Ensign seem most on the ball. This, to me, seems way off the mark.

Alonso's helmet has seen a steady evolution over the years - I can't see him dropping the Spanish colours nor those of Asturias after they have come to be such strong symbols of Alonso fever.

The only reason for wholesale change at McLaren, as I see it, would be the fact that Alonso and Hamilton's helmets are both predominantly yellow these days. But if one driver was going to change their design to better determine who was whom at speed, I think Alonso the double world champion would probably pull rank.

I'm ready to be proved spectacularly wrong though.

[kismet]

I've never found helmets a particular turn-on. This one's no exception.

[kismet]

My Spanish is very, very limpy but that little snippet below the pictures seems to say that Alonso wanted a design similar to the one he used as a kid and this is it. It also explains how the Spanish and Asturian influences/colours (apart from that little bit of blue on top) are indeed taking a back seat this time.

[RDM]

Is there a helmet somewhere under that advert?

[Spyker MF1]

I agree with the statements about a drivers helmet being the same. I don't mind adaption and evolution but if he suddenly changes it to whats on that 06 template the guys used it would be rank.

[MikeTekRacing]

michael has changed his helmet also
after the old one, there was a period when he had one with chrome, and then the last one. there were some intermidiated as well i guess...They all tried to keep something from the old one

here i see a drastic and strange change

[prty]

If the motor21 design is taken out of this:



(see the little drawings)

then it probably isn't the final one, since those are preliminary drawings. If they are taken from a newer source, then it's probably it. It says he maintains a little Spanish flag while the Asturias one isn't there anymore. So probably there's an extra red stripe missing. Although for example in Sordo's one it's missing too.
It says this design was used in his karting days.

Personally I think that the 2001-2005 helmet design is better, then comes this and then the one he used in 2006, which I didn't particulary like.

I don't like either how McLaren or Renault use a lot of the helmet area for adds. It ruined several helmets.

[Limits]

I have some problems seeing the pictures, I get only the main one and about half of the other ones, but it looks like renders rather than photographs?

[Maldwyn]

Quote

Originally posted by kismet
My Spanish is very, very limpy but that little snippet below the pictures seems to say that Alonso wanted a design similar to the one he used as a kid and this is it.

If that's the case then my becomes a Perhaps his Renault lid was more corporate than earlier versions.

[HBoss]

Its ok.

[Jodum5]

I voted other because it's not going to be his helmet

[lukywill]

i think it´s a shame that the blue asturian isn´t there.

but wait. theres some white to fullfill.

[lukywill]

what i really don´t understand is the meaning of those commercial logos on an helmet.

sign of bad times we live i suppose.

[emburmak]

Quote

Originally posted by tidytracks
I just don't buy it. Ross, Angst and Ensign seem most on the ball. This, to me, seems way off the mark.

Alonso's helmet has seen a steady evolution over the years - I can't see him dropping the Spanish colours nor those of Asturias after they have come to be such strong symbols of Alonso fever.

The only reason for wholesale change at McLaren, as I see it, would be the fact that Alonso and Hamilton's helmets are both predominantly yellow these days. But if one driver was going to change their design to better determine who was whom at speed, I think Alonso the double world champion would probably pull rank.

I'm ready to be proved spectacularly wrong though.

IIRC when RB and MS had similar helmets it MS who changed his! Talk about pulling rank.

[Ross Stonefeld]

I always reckoned that was a bs excuse and that he got more money from Marlboro or something. His helmet looked **** in red and it was easy to tell him apart from Rubens. He was the Ferrari running at the front.

[Blaka Da Uglav]

I really loved Alonso in Mild Seven Renault colors. To me it seemed somehow natural and in sync with his asturian origins and therefore I loved his helmet.

Going to Mclaren and opting for theirs colors and abandoning asturian colors for national flag... well I'm not very fond of it but let's wait and see what PR department of McL will come up with.

[ensign14]

Quote

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
I always reckoned that was a bs excuse and that he got more money from Marlboro or something.

Or for MS to make more merchandise money from replica helmets, stickers or whatever else the Great Unwashed buy.

[Spyker MF1]

I preferd MS's last lid I thought it suited the car and was just nice in general. HoweverI prefer the pics of what Alonsos new lid could look like compared to his Renault one

[Rosemayer]

Has anyone considered he is driving for a team thet is almost 1/2 owned by a german company

[HP]

Looks like the corporate world has completely taken over :

[ensign14]

Happened before with Benetton, when they had Fabi and Berger change their helmets. Teo at least could keep the same basic colour scheme but Gerhard's was totally corporate. But that vogue lasted about a season.

[WACKO]

IMO the helmet is one of the very few things left for a driver to have his own identity in a very corporate environment, but it's the law of the money that it will be claimed more and more by commerce. McLaren have in past years also pushed Raikkonen and Montoya to design changes, so no surprise they do it again.

[prty]

I think this is the similar design he used in karting:

[Limits]

To be honest - if I were a driver I doubt that I would think twice about changing my helmet design if I was not 100% happy with it. The only thing really changed is the space occupied by sponsors. It is so prominent and also dictates much of the colors that the actual design behind it is hardly noticable.
It is the simple ones that stays in my mind. Sennas yellow, Ronnie Petersons blue. What did Prost have?
Is there any distinct, personal, design from the last 25 years that could really identify a driver?
Ok, Jacques Villenueves design is not easily forgotten

[Owen]

[ensign14]

Quote

Originally posted by Limits
Is there any distinct, personal, design from the last 25 years that could really identify a driver?

Well, Senna's, of course. Alesi, based on de Angelis'. Damon Hill, based on his dad's. Coulthard's. Lavaggi's. Generally the simple ones.

How Alonso's putative design is meant to resemble his kart one is a mystery to me. They're both mainly white, but his kart one is evidently a Senna design, not the random red stripes on the Johnnie Wankerdome.

[turin]

Quote

Originally posted by Limits
What did Prost have?

White with a french blue geometric pattern, that made me think of a white back-pointing arrow. He didn't change it that much throughout his career.

Quote

Originally posted by Limits
Is there any distinct, personal, design from the last 25 years that could really identify a driver?

Mika's . Very simple and clean. I Love it.

[Levike]

From the modern ones i can remember just one, in some stage of his carreer if i remember correctly Alesi had a very great looking chromed design. Or am I wrong ? Has somebody a picture about it ?


Levi

[Levike]

Mika's design seemed to me always like a Senna design with Mika's national colors.
It was looking great as Senna's too.
For me the simpler designs are the winners, with those i can identify the drivers easily. And of course when some driver with a simple design es great, then his design will have some myth. As for Senna's.

[prettyface]

Quote

Originally posted by Limits
Is there any distinct, personal, design from the last 25 years that could really identify a driver?
Ok, Jacques Villenueves design is not easily forgotten

25 years, are you kidding? That would include some great, instantly recognizable designs: Gilles Villeneuve, Piquet, Mansell, de Angelis , Lauda, Damon Hill (offshoot of Graham's), Senna...

Coulthard's is great. Instantly recognizable, nationalistic and very good looking. reminds you a bit of Racer X

Hakkinen's was another good one. later copied by Milka Duno, I think.

I'm getting sick of the blue top in virtually all helmets. Makes them look generic (specially paired to white and red) and nearly impossible to recognize in cockpit cam.

[santori]

Recently, I liked Frentzen's and McNish's.

[WHITE]

Quote

Originally posted by santori
Recently, I liked Frentzen's and McNish's.

Peter Revson's one was very nice too !

[smartie_f1]

my first reaction looking at that was yuk! but its grown on me the more i look at it.

[Tenmantaylor]

Its not a terrible design but the yellow and red at the bottom next to the black remind me more of the german flag colours than the spanish

[prty]

Now I'm reading the motor21 helmet isn't the one he will use as it's indeed just a 3D version of the little preliminary drawings in the picture that is earlier in the thread.
The picture was very little so it's an interpretation of it more than anything else.

[F1 Tor.]

Maybe they're just putting feelers out there to see what kind of response they get. I thought the color combo left a lot to be desired and there was way too much white. I'm positive the final design will have a bit of Spain thrown in there. I'm still curious to see what the Vodafone/Mac color scheme will look like.

[Juan Kerr]

It'll look like Mansell's from a distance.

[Leyser]

Quote

Originally posted by Ross Stonefeld
I always reckoned that was a bs excuse and that he got more money from Marlboro or something. His helmet looked **** in red and it was easy to tell him apart from Rubens. He was the Ferrari running at the front.

I thought it was said the problem was drivers racing him when he was lapping them because they thought he was Rubens?

Though I do agree - the red helmet looked **** (and throughout his career every change was to the worse) and there's every chance in the world he did change it for reasons other than distinction between him and RB.

[ensign14]

Quote

Originally posted by turin


White with a french blue geometric pattern, that made me think of a white back-pointing arrow. He didn't change it that much throughout his career.

It was meant to be based on the Winfield racing school arrow, so you're not wrong. The main change he made was in about 1984, where he simplified the front to be all blue, rather than having the red pinstripe under the visor.

Incidentally, Mika Salo's F3 design was, to all intents and purposes, identical. Also Kimi in FRenault used Klaus Ludwig's distinctive tones of blue and white design.

[prty]

The company that makes it say that these renders have nothing to do with the actual design, see:

http://www.aerodiseno.com/

[Limits]

Seems like every news item in Spanish has to be taken by many grains of salt
Don't know if the fault is of those who find the news and mistranslate it for us or if it is simply another climate for pure speculations in the Spanish media.

[Bubu's]

SPANISH MEDIA