Grapevine: Schumacher Wants Less Noise to Go Faster

Formula One World Champion Michael Schumacher hopes a fighter-pilot style helmet can help him go even faster this season by reducing the ear-splitting din of his Ferrari engine.

"The noise is something he wants to reduce," the German's spokeswoman Sabine Kehm said today. "It is not that he is suffering more from it but he feels it could be improved. He feels there could be a point where if you reduce the noise, you improve the performance because there is less disturbance.

"He is always trying to find new areas to improve."

Kehm said that the helmet, being developed by German firm Schuberth, would be closed around the five-times champion's head with Schumacher breathing through a sealed mouthpiece in the same way as fighter pilots. But Schumacher has yet to test the helmet on the track and is unlikely to wear it at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on March 9.

"He is testing in Jerez next week so there is a slight possibility he will try it out there but it is not very likely," said Kehm. "The mouthpiece still has to be developed a bit and he may find it is not comfortable."

Schuberth chief engineer Oliver Schimpf said the helmet should significantly reduce the noise from the roaring V10 engine positioned behind the German's head.

"Michael is currently bombarded with 114 decibels of sound. That is nearly as loud as a pneumatic drill," he told the Daily Mirror newspaper. "The absolute limit is 120 decibels. With the helmet it will only feel like he's in a loud disco - around 98 decibels."

Schumacher has regularly updated his helmets, making headlines two years ago when he switched to a bullet-proof model made by the same manufacturer.