The story behind Callum Ilott’s helmet design

We went behind the visor with UNI-Virtuosi driver Callum Ilott to discuss the design of his helmet and delve into the back story of where it all began.

The Briton discusses where the original idea came from back in his karting days and reveals the part that his fellow Ferrari Academy driver Gianluca Petecof played in the design.

“The current design that you see here is an updated one of a style that I had all the way through my karting career,” he began.

“The original helmet had these two bits, which kind of serve as an I, an L, and a T at the same time. There was previously a bit on the front that was yellow, which blended into those pieces as well.

“The reason for yellow, orange and red was so that you could spot me from a distance in karting, because the tracks are quite far. As soon as I went with Ferrari, the yellow came off because it didn't go as well.

“I used to have an aboriginal thing on the back, but I didn’t really know what it meant, so I took it off and replaced it with my logo. Previously, I have not had my actual name on there either, but decided to add it with the logo because I thought that it worked well.

“The original design for the helmet was between me and a guy called Mike Fairholme, who did a lot of people's helmets back in the day, like Allan McNish. Funnily enough, this current helmet was partially designed by Gianluca Petecof, who is a Brazilian Formula Regional Driver from the FDA.

“Gianluca designed it when he was bored on a day off in Maranello and I actually quite liked it. Although he used a white on there, which I swapped it out for black. I took it to Brandon Seaber, who does a lot of my digital design stuff and asked if he could make it into a helmet.

“The idea is that I can kind of spell my name with what is on the helmet. There is the I and the L, the O, which is the ring, and then the double T on the other side. Then there is the C through it as well. So, there is actually a little bit more to it than it may seem at first."