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Autumnpuma

For God's Sake Take Off That Helmet!

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I remember watching footage of an era when a simple white linen "helmet" was enough. It worked for Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Caracciola, Fangio, Ascari etc.

So what's this B* with helmet design ?!

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I remember watching footage of an era when a simple white linen "helmet" was enough. It worked for Nuvolari, Rosemeyer, Caracciola, Fangio, Ascari etc.

Back in those days, you could see the drivers' faces peering through their open-face helmets. When the helmets/cars/etc hide the driver, it's nice to be able to tell one from his team mate at a glance, without having to look for the number on the car (assuming you can see the number in the camera shot) and remember which number belonged to whom.

Personalized helmets are one of my favorite parts of F1. It's like a driver's signature. The design should reflect some part of his personality. Changing it based on sponsors kind of ruins the whole idea.

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There 2 things that I see as defining a driver's personality:

- winning

- his dark side: block-chop/crash/physo-B*/political-maneuvering

A BTW it was by colour of their car's that you could spot them.

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I agree with you, Mike. In these days of toe-ing the corporate line by not speaking out and pleasing the sponsors, a drivers personalised lid should be an untouched sacred item.

It's a sign of the times.

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I would prefer if they kept the same throughout or made just little changes, although I don't think it says too much about ethics, personality, individuality etc if they change it a lot. I think Rossi has by far the best helmet designs.

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Back in those days, you could see the drivers' faces peering through their open-face helmets. When the helmets/cars/etc hide the driver, it's nice to be able to tell one from his team mate at a glance, without having to look for the number on the car (assuming you can see the number in the camera shot) and remember which number belonged to whom.

Personalized helmets are one of my favorite parts of F1. It's like a driver's signature. The design should reflect some part of his personality. Changing it based on sponsors kind of ruins the whole idea.

I agree completely - watching for the driver's helmets (easy tiger!) was the only quick 'n easy way to spot those you were interested in. It IS a mark of their personality to their fans (as opposed to fans of the team...). Go watch a Kart race, the helmet design is just about all you've got to spot them in the mad blur ^_^

Loved Jacky Ickx's, The Hills, Coulfart, Clarks' etc bla etc bla. Maybe one good exception was Button over the last few years, the same pattern but turned to black and white for testing off-season.

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He changed to red when he went to Ferrari, most likely to fit in with the car and/or team....

he only changed the white to red though, to top which was the stars and the flag along the back stayed the same. even before you could tell it was him in his white helmet with the blue top and German flag along the back

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Well... knowing the fact that some of we are a bunch of old F1 lovers, we miss a lot of the magic of those days...the old taste...those were the days werent they?

but...

we have to recognize that we live in a techological and changing world, maybe old drivers didnt change designs so easily because:

1.- they didnt care

2.- the process to design and paint a helmet was very complex those days, so the work to design a new helmet almost every season was difficult and expensive.

3.- the magic is gone

4.- they were beautiful designs, Senna

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Ecap, I like your #3 reason! I have no problem with new and bright colors, but why must those colors just happen to match the sponsor?

Sato, good catch on Mikey the Schu's helmet, but with him I always got the feeling that his old german colors just weren't 'him'. Once he went to Ferrari it was clear that he'd sold his soul to the cavillino rampante and the red felt 'right'.

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Wow... My net realy was sucking quite bad at that moment!

Well like they say, sex is like pizza. Even if it's bad, it's still pretty good.

:huh:

I personally really like the Kimsters current helmet design-

r156604_566561.jpg

He looks like a robot demon! Not what a driver wants to see closing in in his rear view mirror!

fake23rq6.jpg

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:lol:

You're supposed to tip me of potential deals before the event, not after. Some pimp you turned out to be.

No wait a minute....................I mean, you're words insult my honour and integrity.

:lol: Hey b****, you take the deals when i give them... And don't fight on technicalities... :P

Well... knowing the fact that some of we are a bunch of old F1 lovers, we miss a lot of the magic of those days...the old taste...those were the days werent they?

but...

we have to recognize that we live in a techological and changing world, maybe old drivers didnt change designs so easily because:

1.- they didnt care

2.- the process to design and paint a helmet was very complex those days, so the work to design a new helmet almost every season was difficult and expensive.

3.- the magic is gone

4.- they were beautiful designs, Senna

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Here is a good pic of the helmet design Kimi will be using in 2008.

f2008testb2051pz8.jpg

Thanks for posting the pic. I think I prefer the 07 design. The red chin part looks ok but the squiggles look weird

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Never been fussed over helmets really, back in the day they were plain with or without color and sometime with the drivers last name, now they are more a product of adverts and such, whatever floats their boat.

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Rossi's helmet is just pure sex though.

As for Alonso's I love it.

Didn't like his McLaren helmet at all.

---

It's up to them, as long as it's roughly the same or they don't change it too often it's cool.

DC's is getting really boring now for instance.

Drivers might copy Alonso with changing the design but I too belive that Ron/McLaren perhaps told him to chnage it slightly.

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Kimi's 08 helmet is badass. I personally disliked the 07, but the 08 is really cool.

91568.jpg

However, that is cool. I like the shiny trim, too.

The best helmet, though, was Jenson's 2007 testing helmet. It was all unpainted carbon fiber. Badass.

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