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

Mick Schumacher’s helmet for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix is taken to the furnace. Having just had a double layer of clear coat applied, it will dry faster in there – as the driver needs to receive it in just a week’s time, and Mick is just one of four F1 drivers having custom helmets for the Florida race prepared right here, at the office of German designer Jens Munser.

“When I was still painting helmets in the cellar at my parents’ house, I dried them during the nights in the oven in the kitchen,” Jens laughs as he reminisces on the time he crafted helmets for himself and his first clients in motocross. “The next day my mother would bake cakes inside the same oven. So I am happy my parents are still alive and have no health problems! Because back then the clear coat was full of solvent, and the whole kitchen would smell like hell. Nowadays solvents are much better, but 20 or 30 years ago it was just terrible.”

These days Munser ‘bakes’ his helmets on the second floor of a two-story building on the outskirts of his native Salzgitter, which is near Braunschweig, east of Hanover. The furnace is in a separate room, in which Jens also works with paint. It’s a small room next to the main offices, which feature around 10 workstations – including that of Munser himself, which you can discern by the amount of production scrap.

Right now, Jens’s desktop is packed with stickers, rolls of tape and printouts with designs of Mick’s helmets. Also present is an airbrush kit, which Munser uses for the final strokes.

While Schumacher’s future headwear is soaking in heat of around 50 degrees, we go downstairs, to the ground floor, which hosts something of a Munser museum. Among other things, it displays 10 or so helmets used by Mick’s father, Michael, who was Munser’s main client at the start of his career, and a couple dozen helmets of Sebastian Vettel’s, working with whom allowed Munser to really make his name in Formula 1.

Jens Munser Designs currently employs 14 people. During his career, the German designer has got to work with around 40 Formula 1 drivers. His first world championship client was actually Toranosuke Takagi, but Jens only ever painted two helmets for him.

Munser has painted the helmets of four different Schumachers

Photo by: Ekaterina Koroleva / Motorsport Images

It was Munser’s compatriots that helped him get established in F1. He joined Nick Heidfeld on the path from Formula 3 to F1, and then, when Schuberth landed Ralf Schumacher as a client, Munser got the gig of painting those helmets – as the manufacturer’s base in Magdeburg is about 80 minutes’ drive away from Salzgitter.

After that, Ralf’s older brother became a client of Munser’s too. And now he works not only with Mick but also with Ralf’s son David, who currently competes in the DTM. However, it is of course for Sebastian Vettel that Munser has designed and produced the most helmets.

“My company was still small and I was sure the only way to stay in Formula 1 was to bring ideas – without ideas, I’m only a painter,” he explains, while showing a collection of Vettel’s helmets in his impromptu museum. In his Red Bull stint alone Sebastian used almost a hundred unique designs of Munser’s. “I just told Seb ‘let’s do something crazy’,” Munser laughs. “And then we never stopped.

“With Seb, we were the only ones doing it. Now everyone wants special helmets. There were 10 special helmets for Austin last year. Even more for Miami now; nearly all drivers have a special helmet. I guess it will be the same for Monaco.

“It’s a bit like The Beatles. They started with ‘I want to hold your hand’, fun music. And then later John Lennon, as he was growing older, changed his music, his songs were about more important things For Sebastian and me it’s almost the same story" Jens Munser

“But I think now the story became a little bit boring. What can you do for Monaco? Roulette, playing cards? Every year the same. Young drivers now don’t even know what we had done with Sebastian 15 years ago. They tell me: ‘Oh, Jens, we can draw a roulette for Monaco!’ And I say: ‘Oh, what a great idea!’ I’m looking forward to Las Vegas to see more roulettes and playing cards.”

While working on Mick Schumacher’s lid Munser is engaged in a simultaneous dialogue with his team of artists, who are busy putting the final touches on Vettel’s ‘first underwater grand prix’ helmet. Munser’s recent collaborations with the Aston Martin driver have all carried messages on global issues: in support of Ukraine; about the threat of global warming.

“I think it’s a sign that we’re getting older,” Jens says. “It’s a bit like The Beatles. They started with ‘I want to hold your hand’, fun music. And then later John Lennon, as he was growing older, changed his music, his songs were about more important things.

“For Sebastian and me it’s almost the same story. We started with funny ideas, we’d done flake and chrome. And now he has his statements, sometimes political too, and I’m happy we do it together. For me, it is something new again.”

Munser's designs have evolved over time and he's teamed up with Vettel to illustrate key issues

Photo by: Jerry Andre / Motorsport Images

By now, Mick’s helmet has been baking for long enough and Munser can continue his work. The process of painting a helmet (aside from, obviously, time) essentially requires just three components: the paint, the decals and a whole lot of Scotch tape.

The first step after Munser receives the helmet from the manufacturer – in this case, from the Schuberth factory in Schio, Italy – is to apply the primer. Usually this is white paint, which is applied over the carbon body of the helmet.

“When we just started to work with him, one of the first questions Michael asked me was: ‘Why do you start with white? Can’t you start with red?’ ” smiles Jens. “It struck me because nobody had ever asked me that question, but it is actually a good one.

“He’s a race driver, he doesn’t know that fluorescent paint is transparent. So I explained that we need white colour to bring through the brightness: ‘Without it, your helmet will be brown, Michael’. And he agreed. But he wanted to reduce the weight as much as possible.

“For him, it was only important that his helmet is red because he wanted every other driver to know it’s him coming from behind: ‘Oh, there’s a Ferrari. Is it Michael or Rubens? Michael!? I’d better move aside faster’.

“The paint we used for his helmet was full of pigments, it was almost like powder because we reduced the binder to a minimum. Then he told me: ‘I don’t need a mega glossy clear coat’, and I usually did three or four layers of clear coat. In the end, he agreed to do just one. And the helmet was… I just couldn’t look at it. Because under the lights in the garage you could see all the steps, the pigments. It looked terrible, but it was OK for him. Because he had saved a lot of weight.

“I’m still sure this is the secret of his success. Not that his helmet was lighter, but because he asked all these questions. My part was tiny, but I am sure he drove his engineers crazy with all his questions. He was a great driver, yes, but he was an even better developer.”

In the case of Mick’s Miami helmet, after the white paint Jens adds a layer of silver flake paint. In the final design it shows through only in the outlines of a dragon at the back of the helmet and the wave patterns on the sides.

Munser working on Mick Schumacher's helmet ahead of the Miami GP

Photo by: Ekaterina Koroleva / Motorsport Images

Getting the dragon image – which has migrated to Mick’s lids from those used by his father – onto the helmet is the next step. Having had its outline ‘printed’ on a special cutting plotter, Munser transfers it to the helmet. After that, step by step covering and uncovering various areas of the helmet with white scotch tape, he applies several layers of paint: base Miami blue, black for the dragon and the patterns on the sides and bottom, plus two lines of magenta.

When the painting process is over, it’s time to carefully peel off the dragon-shaped sticker, to expose the silver tone. The same goes for the side patterns. It’s only now that the trademark Schumacher stars and stripes are added to the crown of the helmet. They are printed out, as are the logos of sponsor 1&1. Once these are added to their rightful places, Munser covers the helmet with a double layer of clear coat.

After the furnacing, Munser gets to sanding the helmet, to smooth out any roughness before adding the remaining sponsor decals. The next step is to add a small layer of black paint on the magenta lines, to achieve a fading effect.

Munser put together the American flag helmet design for Michael to run at Indianapolis, after the September 11 tragedy

Mick’s special Miami helmet is almost done. For Jens, it is nowhere near the first custom lid designed for a Schumacher to race in a grand prix in the United States. Twenty years ago, it was Munser who put together the American flag helmet design for Michael to run at Indianapolis, after the September 11 tragedy. A copy of that helmet is part of Munser’s museum.

“This is the second helmet, the one he never used,” Jens says while showcasing it. “Ahead of the race I started preparing two helmets, but we were not sure whether he’d use the design. The situation was really difficult because no one knew what will happen next. But I still wanted to make these helmets ready. And then Ferrari showed their car with an American flag on the side, and a guy from Schuberth told me: ‘Maybe you’re right, maybe Michael wants to make a statement, too’.

“So, we finished one helmet overnight, and found a photographer from Munich who could carry one helmet to America. The second one stayed here. It is a nice thing to remember. That weekend Michael’s helmet was a big story. They showed it on CNN, it was their main story of the evening news release: the statement from the F1 world champion in support of the US.”

Munser's American flag design for Michael Schumacher was a tribute to the US after the 9/11 attacks

Photo by: Ercole Colombo

After the final sponsor stickers are applied, Munser adds another layer of clear coat, has the helmet dried again and then sends it to Magdeburg. There, Schuberth specialists will fit it with the necessary components and have it delivered to Florida.

Truthfully, Mick’s Miami helmet is not a huge departure by the standards of modern F1. The only real major change is the colour scheme – all the familiar elements, like the stars and the dragon, are where they always were.

“We have nothing that connects it to Miami too much,” says Munser. “Nothing like palms or beach. The idea of this helmet was born when he told me that he likes that colour. We’ve already had it on his regular green helmet on the back, and he asked me to have it in the front too. I thought it would be nice to do it for Miami, because that’s one of its colours.

“After all, if he likes it, nothing stops him from using it again.”

Mick Schumacher shows off his Miami GP helmet designed by Munser

Photo by: JMD Jens Munser Designs