How have Hamilton's helmet designs evolved over the years?
Ahead of his debut run with Ferrari's 2023 F1 car last Wednesday, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton showed off his new helmet design for his debut season with the Scuderia. F1Technical's lead journalist Balazs Szabo takes a look at the evolution of the seven-time F1 champion's helmets.
Lewis Hamilton completed his first visit to Ferrari's Italian headquarters last Monday when he met engineers and the staff at the Scuderia's F1 department. The Briton then took part in photo shooting on Tuesday before performing work in the simulator.
Hamilton then hit Ferrari's own test track at Fiorano on Wednesday. Even if weather was far from ideal, the seven-time F1 champion carried out some installation laps and start practices before racking up some mileages on slick tyres to end the day with a total of 30 laps.
The 105-time F1 race winner was supported by his mother Carmen, his former trainer Angela Cullen while team boss Fred Vasseur and deputy team boss Jerome d'Amborosio also looked on.
Before driving the Ferrari SF-23 for the first time, Lewis Hamilton revealed his helmet for the debut, featuring his signature yellow design.
Although many believe that Hamilton chose the yellow design as a tribute to his hero three-time F1 champion Ayrton Senna, the Briton has revealed that he selected the livery for a different reason.
“I got my very first helmet when I was eight years old. It was called FM and it was red. All the other guys had cool helmets, like the Arai. It was like having fashionable shoes.”
“My father sat down at the table with me and asked me what colors I wanted. He chose the yellow because he was nervous to see me arrive in the corner with 40 or 50 karts and wanted to recognize me clearly. So he chose yellow, and I accompanied him with red, blue, and green.”
Evolution of Hamilton's helmet designsSince then, the yellow design has become a key part of Hamilton’s identity in Formula One.
However, he has had a wide variety of helmet design since his arrival in Formula One. Hamilton used predominantly yellow color scheme on his helmets during his tenure at McLaren between 2007 and 2012.
When he made the switch from the Woking-based outfit to Mercedes, a relatively wide black strip was added to the top of the helmet and a mixture of green, red and blue appeared on its both sides.
With the arrival of the hybrid era in 2014, Hamilton’s helmet design changed significantly, with the white colour taking over the dominance from yellow. After these three years, the 105-time F1 race winner switched back to mainly yellow design for the 2017 F1 season, but the white colour returned in 2018 and 2019.
His colour scheme for the 2020 season was a complete departure from the previous design. The new helmet was largely white and purple, and featured six stars – one for each of his F1 championships – as well as his ‘Still I Rise’ motto underneath a representation of Rio de Janiero’s Christ the Redeemer statue.
He carried this design over into 2021, but the yellow colour scheme returned in 2022, although it was rather a mixture of yellow and purple rather than a complete yellow design.
His brand-new helmet is a clear move away from the design he used during his final season with Mercedes in 2024, which combined yellow, purple and black elements. The striking yellow crash helmet for the 2025 season matches the Ferrari logo and complements his red racing overalls.
