I had some spare time over the summer break earlier this year and thought I’d mess around in Photoshop, to see which drivers’ helmet designs would translate well onto cars. Some fared better than others, while some I couldn’t get to work at all, which is why I don’t have a full ‘grid’ below. I’ve also made sure not to use any logos, which really accentuates the design. It’s helped me notice that while I love simple helmet designs, these end up looking the emptiest on an F1 car. Finally decided to post them up, so check them out below!
Fernando Alonso
The colours and design work well on a car for Alonso, and I haven’t had to stray much at all from the helmet. Colour distribution makes this look a lot more yellow than the helmet, but I don’t feel it suffers much for it.
Valtteri Bottas
Love Valtteri’s helmet, but without sponsorship, the lack of detail leads to quite a plain livery. I don’t hate it, but would be very sponsor friendly!
Marcus Ericsson
Marcus added some sparkle this year, and while this isn’t my preference, made for a decent looking F1 livery. The lines seem to flow nicely along the car and look nice and aggressive.
Lewis Hamilton
Struggled to get Lewis’ design to ‘fit’ on a car, therefore, the three stripes do look quote chunky. Not my favourite, but I do look forward to the day that we see a metallic candy apple red/maroon car on the grid.
Nico Hulkenberg
While I kinda despise Huklenberg’s new helmet, which went from unique to awfully generic at the start of the season, it works pretty well on the car. Definitely helped by the white section on the airbox, even the circus tent pattern looks alright over the entire car.
Daniil Kvyat
Almost unrecognisable without the Red Bull logo! Side on helmet design is well suited to the car, and has an almost entirely different personality minus the sponsorship.
Kevin Magnussen
I have to say I never really paid attention to Magnussen’s helmet until I made this, but I’m glad I did, because it’s a great design despite being mostly silver/grey. The giant stylised K fits well on the engine cover and the colours are simple, but pop with the red. The stripey pattern makes for a good, subtle secondary design.
Felipe Massa
This is one that I thought would never worked, but is actually OK! The rear of the car is quite plain with the solid yellow, but toward the front, the hexagonal patterns are quite interesting. The design flows well along the nose.
Esteban Ocon
This is slightly ruined by my lack of design skills, sourcing a picture of bubbles on the internet, but that aside, Ocon’s colour choice is quite basic and monotonous (I wonder if it will be back next year, it’s quite gimmicky I feel), but the design flows well enough along the body.
Jolyon Palmer
One of my favourites. Colour choice is slightly on and not entirely complementary, but the white stripe works really well, flowing effortlessly from the nose to the airbox. Nice little colour split from the top to the bottom as well.
Kimi Raikkonen
Whether it’s the design of my lack of artistic skills, this livery looks very disjointed on a car compared to Kimi’s helmet. Lots of lines jutting at different angles makes me a little uncomfortable!
Lance Stroll
What’s probably my favourite helmet looks a little boring on an F1 car! I’m sure I could have taken some liberties to spice this up a little, but going for realism leads to some lack of excitement.
Had a go at a few other helmets, but just couldn’t seem to get anything flowing for them. Let me know what you think of the above!
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