Best crash helmet paint job

[Trev Campbell]

Gilles Villeneuve
Larry Perkins
Nigel Mansell
Ayrton Senna
Wayne Gardner (Original 500cc Helmet)

[312T4]

Originally Posted by ensign14

Hated Gilles'. Random shapes of dark colour, difficult to distinguish. Perry McCarthy's was based on his. Alesi's was based on de Angelis', Jean being a fan of Elio's. Coulthard was not the first with a saltire helmet, check out Gerry Birrell.

Gilles design was a shaped V (Villeneuve), even if it was not so clear to "read".

[andy_b]

Does this count....

http://www.seatcupra.net/users/andyb...lmets_main.jpg

[ensign14]

Originally Posted by 312T4

Gilles design was a shaped V (Villeneuve), even if it was not so clear to "read".

You could only see the V if you were standing behind him. Better for snowmobile racing. Although he used to use one in Hamilton Academical-esque red and white hoops, which was distinctive and effective.

[ASCII Man]

Originally Posted by ensign14

You could only see the V if you were standing behind him. Better for snowmobile racing. Although he used to use one in Hamilton Academical-esque red and white hoops, which was distinctive and effective.

Like this

[cds_uk]

I always thought Olivier Grouillard had a cool design, same goes for Mike Thackwell.

[WapFlap]

I like Alesi's helmet, Julian Bailey's and Damon and Graham Hill's helmet.

[jamesl]

Nelson Piquet

[manwell]

Im not bagging Anthony Davidson, because i know a lot of helmet designs look similar. But i always thought AD had a quite unique helmet design and must have designed it himself. But ealier in this thread i looked at Eddie Cheevers helmet and i realised where Ant got the idea from.

http://www.justherm.com/images/chevsmhelml.jpg

http://lancenet.ig.com.br/clubes/f15...t_davidson.gif

Is there any connection between the two? I mean has Ant ever stated that he was a fan of Cheever or that he just liked Cheevers design and used a modified version of it?

[ensign14]

Davidson was a fan of Cheever's helmet and copied it. He's definitely mentioned it in an interview. Laurent Redon is another Cheever-inspired design.

[Hazza]

Originally Posted by Trev Campbell

Wayne Gardner (Original 500cc Helmet)

The white and blue scheme?

[Trev Campbell]

Yeah, and it had a red stripe. I think he rode with a reverse version aswell white/red with a blue stripe a couple of times.

[FREE996]

Originally Posted by Hazza

The white and blue scheme?

Always prefered Doohans scheme

Again non F1 but Paul Tracy's from Cart is good



And of course Whithams from 1996

[chunterer]

Greg Moore's was a nice design too (think ryan Lewis modelled his on that?)

[Ryo28]

I quite like Patrick Friesacher's helmet - looks more like a motorcyclist's than a single seater driver's.

http://www.formule2.com/data/media/5...esacher_01.JPG

I always thought Frentzen's helmet was simple but effective too.

[TheNewBob]

I'm a fan of the nice simple style designs over a lot of modern ones. My faves probably include Senna, Damon/Graham Hill, Mansell, Piquet, Alesi, also like Adrian Campos and Esteban Tuero quite a bit...

[paulzinho]

Senna...

Distinctive and almost like a brand.

[Rennen]

Originally Posted by ensign14

Davidson was a fan of Cheever's helmet and copied it. He's definitely mentioned it in an interview. Laurent Redon is another Cheever-inspired design.

No Redon copied Davidson's to be exact...I designed Davidson's way back in 1988, I was a graphic artist doing cars graphics and helmets, I wanted a design that was destinctive and easy to pick out on the go-kart track...white stood out the best and as he had blue leather overalls with yellow stars down the sleeves and legs I put a star each side and on the front. In 1990 I added blue bands to link the stars up and match the blue from the overalls...maybe I had Cheevers basic design in my subconcious?...Dunno! But AD has accused me ever since of just copying Cheevers and said so just to 'wind me up' in Autosport when they used to feature a helmet design each week in their magazine.

Over the years Ant has dropped the front star and added the red lines around the blue bands and has had the stars changed from yellow through gold to the current 3D effect in silver. The helmets have painted by a chap called Martin and by BAR themselves and now by Bell Helmets which the sharp eyed might have noticed hes just changing to after years of being supplied by Arai.

Whatever the overall effect is Red White and Blue national colours displayed in a distinctive way.

It is correct that Cheevers colours...half red and half blue with a white star dividing the two background colours represent the state flag of Arizona...it's also the North Vietnamese communist national flag! But I dont think they copied it from Arizonia's Hahaha Nah truth is no design is unique it's all been done before...Hmmm or is that just the excuse of a bad designer with little imagination Doh!

I don't know about you guys but at test days I really struggle to tell whos in the cars these days...so for me the "Best crash helmet paint job" is the one that allows me to recognise the driver when he flashes past me at over 150mph!

Ironically it's now quite distinctive to have a plain helmet in just one colour!

[Hazza]

Okay, I've allways digged...

Colin Edwards' Old-Old design

Steve Hislop's last design

A simple one liike Fast-Eddie's (Plus the best looking 500cc monster full stop)

Ahh yes, and Christian Sarron's

And an old Go-Show and the New Go-Show

[Jordi]

Originally Posted by Rennen

...now by Bell Helmets which the sharp eyed might have noticed hes just changing to after years of being supplied by Arai.

Did notice him testing with a black Bell helmet... DC tested one too, is he changing as well?


EDIT: no, DC still used an Arai on the last Jerez test...

[okeefe]

Originally Posted by Alex Hodgkinson

However, it must be said that Kimi's helmet is rather like a motorbike racer's helmet.

Well that explains my love of Kimi's helmet then I guess - because firstly I guess I like my own bike helmet with 4 blue Quebec fleur de lis on it; secondly and in F1, I like Kimi's. Anywhere, I love diamonds..........