The "fashion evolution" that transformed F1 drivers' helmet designs

While we absorb the revised car liveries (or, rather, colour splashed on naked carbon fibre) now the season is under way, there’s also the fun of seeing different helmet designs. Individual paint schemes have always mattered, particularly when identifying which driver is which within a team.

Nowadays a driver’s choice of artwork is sometimes seen as less distinctive and much more changeable than it used to be.

That is confirmed by Mike Fairholme, a helmet artist at one time responsible for 12 F1 drivers in the 1990s. Having trained as a graphic designer, he has seen a major shift in design and technique.

“The process of painting a helmet is different today,” Mike says. “It’s a form of art, not a graphic. In a way it’s a fashion evolution; what I did related to a heraldic style where a knight wearing a helmet had a shield with a coat of arms to identify him. For me a graphic idea sends a message without words. That was part of my inherent understanding of how to present and create something noticeable.”

Mike’s career began as crash helmets attained greater visibility; one year after they became mandatory for motorbike riders in 1973, Mike started riding himself and it felt natural to paint his own helmet and make it personal.

His final art college show was inspired by a friend who offered him a helmet on condition that he painted it for the display. “I kind of freaked the tutors out,” he laughs, “because the graphics world in those days was all about two-dimensional images and illustrations, but here was me with a 3D object with elaborate paintwork on.”

Fairholme oversaw Coulthard's helmet design develop during his F1 career

Photo by: Andre Vor / Sutton Images

By the mid-1980s Fairholme was operating as a race helmet specialist and, while drivers would often have a concept, it was up to Mike to transfer the design into a visual message that would work at speed and distance. “I was always mindful of the appropriateness of colour,” he recalls. “The designs from my era tended to be two or three colour designs and with that you can use the contrast.”

David Coulthard had carried Scotland’s national flag, the Saltire, on his crash helmets since his karting days but, as he moved to F1, the designs needed sophisticated yet clear adjustments.

“David’s helmet evolved when he was at Williams because he had to get the Rothmans badge on, so the position of the Saltire had to move back. Later, to suit McLaren’s sponsors, the blue was changed and a hoop added, with a final evolution when he moved to Red Bull.”

"I think Dan [Wheldon’s] helmets were the first to push the boundaries and play with new ideas. Drivers used the same design almost throughout their careers, so for a driver to change it every race was unheard of" Mike Fairholme

From the team’s arrival in 2005, Red Bull was keen to promote the brand in every possible way but there was caution in asking established racer Coulthard to alter his helmet design. In fact, he was happy to allow his specialist to adjust accordingly. Mike removed the halo, tweaked the colours from flat blue to metallic blue and introduced the Red Bull logo. It was the beginning of a system at Red Bull where drivers incorporate the brand into their racing identity.

“It wasn’t a major shift,” says Mike, “but it accommodated sponsors. It made it look a different helmet yet still related to DC with the Saltire; they let me get on with it and I feel lucky I was trusted.”

Red Bull has allowed a softening of requirements on drivers’ helmets with freedom of background colours and a diluted boldness of design. Another shift came from DC’s replacement at the team; Sebastian Vettel’s desire for constant changes, working with helmet specialist Jens Munser, led to 96 different designs in total – but Seb wasn’t the first driver to open up the creativity.

Wheldon was one of the first to regularly change his helmet design, a trait Vettel also picked up on

Photo by: Andre Vor / Sutton Images

Much of that initiative came from the late Dan Wheldon, the British IndyCar ace who worked with Suffolk-based specialist Jason Fowler to adjust his logos constantly. The two of them started working together in 2003 and Dan decided to go for a new design with every fresh helmet, so long as his ‘Lionheart Knight’ emblem and the sponsors were included.

PLUS: The in-demand helmet designer creating works of art for F1's best

“I think Dan’s helmets were the first to push the boundaries and play with new ideas,” Jason says. “Drivers used the same design almost throughout their careers, so for a driver to change it every race was unheard of. I’ve no idea if those helmets inspired Seb to change his designs for races but I’d like to think so, as Dan’s were there first!”

Constant alterations in F1 were banned in 2015 but that rule was relaxed in 2020. Mike, who began his career at a time when crafted helmets often had to last many races, believes a distinct design for a driver still matters.

“On the current grid, Kevin Magnussen’s helmet is the most striking because of the large K sending a clear message it’s Kevin. Of the others, it’s notable Lando Norris’s design features a recurring bold stripe, like the one often hidden on Vettel’s design. This usually works, whatever background colour is used.”

Perhaps some drivers are more savvy of their brand than others; Lando has his own gaming-and-clothing company, Quadrant. Each to their own in the world of helmet liveries, an artistic and colourful element of F1.

Fairholme picks out Magnussen's helmet as the most striking on the current F1 grid

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images