Sebastian Vettel, Max Verstappen slam 'major BS' helmet rule

Sebastian Vettel

Vettel, Verstappen slam 'major BS' helmet rule

They want to be able to express themselves.

Martin Macdonald

Tuesday 5 November 2019 13:00

Sebastian Vettel believes the current rule which allows drivers to change their helmet design only once per season is “major BS” - which is why he tends to ignore it.

Earlier in the season, Daniil Kvyat was denied the opportunity to redesign his helmet in order for it to represent the flag of his home nation, Russia. It was around this time that it was revealed that Vettel and Max Verstappen don’t ask for permission anymore when changing theirs.

The German is of the opinion that drivers should be allowed to be creative and change designs whenever they like.

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“Well, I change it [my helmet the design] anyway so… It’s our helmet and we should be free to do what we want, so I think the rule is major BS,” he told Motorsport.com.

“We have very little room left to sort of express ourselves and the helmet is probably the only one and if people like it, that’s great, if they don’t like it well it’s not their helmet.

“So I think we should be in charge for designing which way and which colour our helmet has.”

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His colleague Verstappen agrees, insisting it is “boring” for drivers to have the same design for an entire season.

“I agree. I always loved when Seb was at Red Bull and changing his helmet every race, almost, more or less,” the Dutchman said.

“It was cool because you were just like ‘what is he coming up with now?’.

“I do a few but I’m not going to say I will do a different helmet every race because it’s just too much effort in designing the helmet but I think if you want to make it blue or red, the next race, why not? It’s your crash helmet and you should be able to do what you want.

“Of course in the past, there have been drivers who have always had the same helmet and then they say ‘yeah, but that’s how we can distinguish the drivers’.

“But at the end of the day we have massive numbers on the side, we have a halo on the top, so let us do what we want with the helmet now.

“It’s very nice to have a different design every year because it’s a bit boring always to keep the same helmet.”