Four regular drivers are using special helmet designs at this weekend’s race. Here’s a closer look at those, plus the styles used by the two newcomers to F1 at Monza.
Carlos Sainz Jnr’s 2024 Italian Grand Prix helmet
Both Ferrari drivers are sporting special black racing suits for the team’s home race this weekend. It is a particularly special race for Carlos Sainz Jnr, who is making his last appearance in Italy as a Ferrari driver.
“This is more than just a helmet,” he said introducing his latest design on social media, “it’s a tribute to Monza and the passion that bring us together.”
Charles Leclerc’s 2024 Italian Grand Prix helmet
Leclerc has also foregone his usual red crash helmet for a special black ‘carbon fibre’ design.
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Yuki Tsunoda’s 2024 Italian Grand Prix helmet
Yuki Tsunoda’s special helmet for this weekend features cartoons created for him by a Japanese graphic artist.
Lance Stroll’s 2024 Italian Grand Prix helmet
Lance Stroll’s helmet is not intended as a tribute to Vitantonio Liuzzi’s, though there is a clear similarity in the split green and red design. He is celebrating Italy and the Monza circuit, where he scored his second podium finish in 2020.
Franco Colapinto’s helmet
This weekend isn’t the first time Franco Colapinto has participated in a grand prix weekend – he drove for Williams in the first practice session at Silverstone last month – but it is due to be his first start in an F1 race.
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He’s reverted to his usual helmet design, which features the Argentinian flag. Earlier this year, while racing in Formula 2, he revealed a special design created in conjunction with Argentine music producer Bizarrap.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s helmet
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who has been confirmed as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement at Mercedes next year, had his first run in practice yesterday, though it didn’t quite go according to plan.
The 18-year-old has made few changes to his helmet design during his career and says he intends to stick with largely the same look. “The design of my very first helmet was fairly similar to this one,” he told the official Formula 2 website. “Actually, since that first helmet, I’ve wanted to keep a very similar design, just the colours have changed a little bit. But overall, the helmet has been fairly similar.”The layout features the colours of the Italian tricolour plus a blue frontage (this was previously black). The inner lining is blue for dry conditions and his wet weather helmets have grey trim.
For his F1 run he returned to using the number 12 he raced earlier in his career, which appears on his helmet. In F2, where drivers cannot choose their own number, he was assigned the number four.
“It’s always been pretty easy to recognise, so that’s one of the main reasons why I’ve decided to keep the same design and maybe change the colours slightly,” he said. “When my parents watch or other people watch, they can recognise that it’s me in the car really easily.
“Also, the design is quite special because it’s quite easy to recognise, that’s why it’ll be the same even in my future helmets.”
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2024 Italian Grand Prix
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Jere (@jerejj)
31st August 2024, 10:29
Good designs, & Lance’s is my outright favorite.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
31st August 2024, 10:37
Bizarrap played a part in supporting Franco’s F2 season. Franco’s an interesting case, as he doesn’t come from money, and his fans gathered together and tried to involve Bizarrap and others to support him via social media. It worked. And his arrival to F1 also brought new interest from local companies. Mercado Libre (an Argie eBay used all across Latin America) was announced as official partner yesterday. And they were not supporting Franco before, so it’s the “F1 effect”.