Will someone PLEASE slap the FIA.

[philipbain]

I hate the whole helmet design swapping nonesense so I back the FIA's stance on this, a driver's helmet should be their hallmark, making them easily identifiable. However, makers of little scale helmets will be sobbing, they will have less scope to shift merch!

[AndyL]

It is a Alain Prost's hat... because it is Alain Prost.

http://www.redbull.com/au/en/motorsp...rand-prix-2014

This is kind of the point. QED.

'Who' is but the form following the function of 'what' and what an F1 driver is, is a man in a mask. Whilst I'm not questioning people's powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is... from 100 yards away we shouldn't have to.

So we were looking at a clear, still picture of a very famous driver who hasn't substantially changed his helmet design in 35 years or something. Two committed F1 fans attempted to answer the question and neither correctly identified the driver. Doesn't this tell us that helmet designs are not a terribly effective way of telling who's who?

Legislating helmet designs is utterly ridiculous. If it turns out someone on motorsport.com accidentally posted the "April fools" story 6 weeks early I won't be at all surprised.

[Big Ben]

While I don't particularly like this constant helmet design change (attention whores ) banning it is quite stupid. FIA shouldn't get into such details. Can't they just make them put more visible numbers on their cars if they want to help us tell them apart? And how are they going to police this? The helmets will have to be identical at every race? Or are they going to establish some rules which changes actually change the design of the helmet?

[schmenke]

Many helmets these days contain sponsorship logos. So... what happens if a driver either changes or picks up a new sponsor mid season?

[Doc Austin]

If you want to make the cars easier to identify, just require bigger numbers.

This is just like the FIA to micromanage the crap out of everything when a simpler solution is easy to see.

[giu canbera]

they've also aborted the plan to introduce next year bigger fuel tanks and rear tires and more power on the engines. Also, they dont liked the suggestion to have only 3 mechanics during pitstops..
IMO this would be SOOOOOOOOOOO MUUUUUUUUUUUUUCH fun to watch and cheer!
A real battle between mechanics
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLZU7teBwY8

[journeyman racer]

Logged on to like the OP. More whinging and whining from "the fans". Is there something else to sook about?

Alain Prost was easy.

[jens]

Well...

Sounds like a proper joke.

The decision to choose a helmet design for racing is an entirely private matter of the driver (and, also, sponsors). If he likes to have multiple helmet designs, it's his choice and if we - fans - have a problem with that, it is our problem.

You want a driver to have the same helmet, because you can't recognize him? Well, imagine, if you were told you need to wear a hat of certain colour all the time, because it would make it easier to spot you from the distance.

Even teams can sometimes change their liveries during a season (I can remember several special one-off liveries), but a driver can't change a helmet?

[journeyman racer]

To digress for a bit. As I've gotten older, I actually think the effort put into helmet colours by drivers is taken a bit too seriously. Especially some of the intricate designs that you can't notice unless you are holding it, or having a wider range of colours. I remember as a kid colouring in paint schemes, even during free class time . I remember thinking it was pretty dull of Al Unser jr to just go with the main sponsor colours. But now I see it didn't matter. Nowadays I think drivers are try-hards focussing on it so much. The point of the helmet is to protect your head. No creative paint scheme is going to protect your head more. If you're a professional racing an open cockpit, in a series that's on tv, then you chose a colour to distinguish yourself from others from a distance. Maybe two or three to allow for variations. Anything other than that, just the plain black or white will do.

[Tazio]

Well...

Well, imagine, if you were told you need to wear a hat of certain colour all the time,

I spent a long Baseball career being told that, and never had a problem with it