Paying tribute to his dad, the story behind Clément Novalak’s helmet design

Stepping up to Formula 2 with MP Motorsport for the final two rounds last season, Clément Novalak has remained with the Dutch team for 2022.

We went behind the visor with the Frenchman, who explained all about standing out from the crowd, remembering his dad who inspired his love of racing and how he’s got some big ideas to shake-up the design later in the season.

“When I started, I was one of the white helmet bandits – that is the case for most drivers at the very start. I kept a white helmet for a year or two before I got a painted one. That was just a random off-the-shelf helmet. 

“I started using my design now in junior karting, or something similar anyway. There is an element of Kimi Räikkönen to it, as you can probably see. Blue is my favourite colour and I think it works well with orange. 

“The orange was a way for my dad to see me when I was driving around on track. It is quite flashy and stands out. That’s why we initially chose those colours and I have kept them ever since.  

“There is a diamond effect on the orange, which looks quite cool. Then I have my name on the top in graffiti, which was something else that I first did in karting. I’ve kept the same font.

“The glitter effect has been there since karting too. It isn’t currently as flashy as I would like it to be, so I will try and make that stand out even more.

“My dad passed away in 2017 and in 2018, I added his birthday to the helmet in Roman numerals. My dad is the person who got me into racing, it is where my passion comes from, and I wanted to remember him on my helmet. 

“I would love to try some special limited-edition helmets during the year, possibly for the night races with some glow in the dark paint. 

“The original design was done by Oli Oakes and JMD and painted by Bell, so a big shout out to all of them.”