Tho I appreciate the artistry and multitudes of kaleidoscopic colors and sparkles, I often wish some dude on the grid would go counter-culture and do an old school style helmet livery and never change it...ever. Jet black with a giant white star on the side, or blue with a couple stripes around the top (Hill), maybe orange with their number on one side — hand painted in the car on the way to the first race. No apologies. No flare. Completely over it. “Just here to drive, man” kinda message rather than worry about glossy image or easy to market flashy career gadgets.
This same idea falls in line with folks desire to return back to lighter and smaller cars with NA V10’s without all the electric and electronic gimmickry. I mean, come on man, F1 as an environmentally friendly icon to the world?!? Lol!! Who comes up with that kinda self-defeating nonsense!!?? Oh yea, the FIA.
I digress.
I’m an avid, multi-decade F1 fan, and I still sometimes don’t know which driver is which in the Haas during the race. It’s frustrating. Numbers help but often manufacturers don’t do a real good job with placement or contrasting colors, and head on shots down the straight don’t help with the numbers argument. I’d rather a consistent helmet I can recognize from front or either side. Heck, Senna’s simple yellow dominant Brazil color scheme is part of his legend. None of the drivers allow for this same characteristic in their own careers, oddly.
Alpine was a bit easier last year because Fred has had that same thick striping for years. But this year I’ll struggle to tell the Alpines apart along with Haas because most every driver makes helmet livery changes yearly, and especially when changing teams. Vettel is a good example of that when he went that white look after years of being RB purple and blues and blacks. I never did like his white helmet scheme, fwiw.
I know, I know, I’m old and “can’t keep up with the new whipper-snappers” I get it. It’s the new F1 driver identity style...but I can still dare to dream, can’t I?
Nevertheless, thanks for all the helmet posts guys. It is helpful for me to at least try and keep up with who’s in the brain bucket each season.
Cheers-
Watching F1 since 1986.
I digress. 
