Behind the visor of a champion: Piastri takes us on a tour of his helmet

Before his promotion to Alpine’s official Formula 1 reserve driver, we caught up with 2021 Formula 2 champion, Oscar Piastri, who took us on a tour of his helmet design and discussed the backstory behind it.

"My very first helmet was off-the-shelf HJC, I think,” began Piastri. “It was a red, black and grey vinyl design. I had that when I first started and then had a white helmet for around two years.

"After that, I was planning on getting a painted helmet, but I had a karting crash where I flipped over and destroyed my white helmet, so I needed a new one for the next weekend.

"Lucky Design shipped a bunch of pre-painted designs to Australia and I chose one that I liked, which was blue and red. That was my first design, and it's why my helmet is now blue and red.

"I added the yellow when I got my second painted helmet and have stuck with it since then. My current helmet is reasonably similar, I just make small changes each year. On the last few helmets, I had a white halo, but I got rid of that and made it blue, which I think looks better.

"I started using the Australian flag on my helmet in 2019 and this is probably the most prominent one yet. It was on the top of my F3 helmet and small on the sides, but you could not really see it, whereas now, it is very visible. It's nice to show off the Aussie flag and it matches my colour scheme as well, which is nice.

"In terms of changes, the last couple of years I had white lines on my helmet and this year I wanted something a bit more bling, so I went for the sparkly hollow lines and I think that's added another element to it.

"There is no significance to the pattern on the top, I just needed something to fill the gap because I thought that there was going to be a lot of blue.

"I designed it with Miles from MDM in the UK and we both agreed that we needed something else on the top. We've got the same sort of pattern on the side as well. There is no significance to it, but I think it looks cool. That's one area we could change later down the line.

"My logo on the back of the helmet was another addition this year. I was semi-involved in the finalising process of designing my logo, but I didn't design it myself.

"And obviously, we have got to mention Alpine, who have their own dedicated spot on my helmet. I appreciate their support immensely, they've been a great support for me in my career since I joined it's an honour to have them on there."