Behind the visor – Louis Delétraz

We went behind the visor with Carlin’s Louis Delétraz to discuss the design of his helmet and delve into the back-story of where it all began.

The Swiss driver tells of his desire to be different, using the same designer as his father, and his love for the colour green.

The first year that I started in karting, I had a totally different design to the one you see here, but then I got in touch with the designer who made the helmets for my father [Jean-Denis Delétraz] and I told him that I loved green and red - like a red/orange colour. There are no similarities between this helmet and the one my father used though. None at all. We worked with the same designer, but the helmet uses a different design.

I didn't want something normal, I wanted something different to what people usually go for. I wanted to try different lines, which is why if you look at the helmet, it is never straight or square, it is always a bit different. I don't really know how to describe it, but it is not straight lines, it is kind of round at the same time and there are a lot of different shapes involved. I have got the initials of my family on there as well: my mother, my father, my grandmother and my grandfather.

It has evolved over the years: I have added the gold and now the carbon black lines. Every year from 2009 has used the same colours, but the helmet has evolved in other ways. It is complicated to make a helmet with gold, it is all about weight now and if you want to use gold, then you have to chrome the whole helmet and then paint over it, which made it heavy. Now though, it is not actual gold, it is paint that looks like gold. It is a bit less shiny, but it does still look like the gold that I have always had.

The carbon lines beforehand were chrome silver, but they are now carbon. That has saved a lot of grams and is important for the neck. The lighter your helmet is, the less you have to carry, of course.

Bell started painting my helmets in 2019, but the design has stayed the same and the sponsors and the Swiss flag have always remained on there. My logo and my number on the back as well. One of the main reasons that I haven't changed the design is so that people can recognise me on and off track, which I think is very important.

I think that it is a very different helmet to a lot that you see. It is not standard and the colours are a bit different. As I said, I love green, so that has been there since day one. The big picture of this helmet is the same as it was ten years ago and that is what I have always wanted - I want to keep the same identity.

I usually have two or three helmets a year. One wet helmet and one dry and then a third one in case any F1 testing comes up, which requires different logos and different sponsors. When I done my tests last year in Abu Dhabi I made a special helmet. Again, it was the same design in terms of the big picture, but small details were different. That is at home now and it's quite special.