A tribute to a new challenge: Ritomo Miyata on his Formula 2 Helmet Design

Ritomo Miyata is 10 rounds into a completely new challenge for him as he continues to impress as a part of the Rodin Motorsport team in Formula 2.

In a year of big changes for him, he decided to lean into the novelty that has come with his 2024 campaign by bringing an all-new helmet, and he recently sat down with us to talk through it all.

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"My first helmet looks very similar to this one. The design is completely different but the colour is the same, so red, gold, then black and white, but the design is different.

"You can see here I have the R now but before it was like a Y. Before my father designed my helmets but this season, I sent an order to the helmet designer that I wanted to change everything because this season is a new challenge for me, so I wanted to change the helmet design, that's why I changed it.

I have no idea where this design came from. It was just a feeling. I wanted to change something and then I talked with my helmet designer, we talked about the writing and the design and we decided on this and then I put the sponsor logo, car numbers, my name, my logos, and the team’s logos.

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I like the red on the helmet because it shows the passion. The gold in my opinion is about winning the race, so it means exactly that.

MDM designers designed my helmet, and the painting was done by a Japanese painter. The designer, my friend introduced me to them, so then I sent a message saying I wanted a new design from them, they accepted it and then they started the helmet designer.

The painter, I knew him from before, but to be honest I'd never met him, we just chat online. I know him because he works very fast, so this current helmet took three weeks. Normally they spend about one month or two months on a helmet but he took two or three weeks, it was really fast.

To be honest, I really liked the top pattern. It looks very fast. I also love the red and the gold because these colours are my favourite colours.

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I'm not sure what I'll be doing next year so I'm not sure what we will do in terms of the helmet. Maybe I will let my father design my helmet because my family are big supporters of my racing career.

Of course, I like this helmet design but maybe my European fans along with the Japanese fans want to see the old one, so maybe I will bring back the old design.