After the Qatari GP, I took a little break from my 2023 helmet set to concentrate on some other projects. So far this year, there hasn't been a crazy amount of special helmets, which has been pretty manageable for me which is great, but I was expecting that to change for the last four races of the year, and, boy, there were quite a lot of them. I had been doing monthly updates and this was meant to have been the October and November update combined, but sorry I've missed it by a few days. Because of the sheer number of helmets, I'm going to release them in two batches. There's no real order to which I'm creating these helmets, but here is what has been done so far.
Max Verstappen - Qatar GP
Firstly, congratulations to Max and Red Bull on their dominant Championships this season. Dominance brings a bit of inevitability and can be a bit dull at times, but that's no reason not to recognise both team and driver at the absolute top of their game and respect to that. It's official, not only was it record breaking, but it is statistically the most dominant performance from a driver ever in F1. Massive respect, and fully deserved. Sure he didn't win every race, but to be out front at pretty much every race, to wipe the floor with his experienced team-mate the way that he has, and appear so dominant in a close grid (compared to the old days), this is praise-worthy stuff that is not likely to be repeated soon, if at all. Congrats to Max, to Red Bull, to Adrian Newey et al for this incredible effort.
After winning the Championship at the sprint race, Max was presented with a new World Championship helmet in blue and gold, following the design of his late season helmet. Verstappen did a similar thing last year when he wore a gold helmet celebrate his championship victory and now this one features three stars at the rear of the helmet. Designed once more by KV Designs, the helmet was beautifully painted by JMD Helmets. Max wore the helmet at the Qatar GP which, predictably, he also won.
Pierre Gasly - Qatar GP
Pierre presented two helmets which he wore during the weekend in Qatar. It's his race helmet that I've decided to recreate. This helmet, designed by Alanoud Al Ghamdi and Shouq Al Mana for Qatar Creates, is inspired by the flora and fauana of the desert, its nomadic people, using textures inspired by the sand and the Qatari flag, Arabic calligraphy and the cultural symbol of the horse. These are all nicely worked into his regular helmet design where Pierre had a competitive weekend, despite being one of the most penalised over track limits in the race.
Pierre Gasly - US GP
This helmet is a lovely tribute to the late Francois Cevert. If you don't know his story, there's plenty of great tributes about him written recently as we commemorated 50 years since his sad passing at Watkins Glen. The poster boy, the rising talent, being nutured by Jackie Stewart himself to be his replacement, his future was bright, but sadly cut devastatingly short, and ultimately lead to Stewart's early retirement. Cevert had a beautiful and simple helmet livery, and it still looks awesome on a modern day helmet. Well done to KV Designs for tastefully applying the logos to it too.
Nico Hulkenberg - US GP
Nico ran a US inspired helmet for the race in Austin Texas, mixed with chrome elements. I ended up hand drawing this one, so it took a little while but I'm pleased with the overall result. JMD helmets are always pushing the boundaries of what's possible on a helmet and this one has a nice blend of busy and distinctive.
Kevin Magnussen - US GP
K-Mag has gone with this rustic look with a Route 66 map on the top and on the rear of his helmet. This is a nice variation on his regular helmet design by KV Designs.
Daniel Ricciardo - US GP
The US GP marked the return of replacement driver Daniel Ricciardo in the Alpha Tauri. This design takes his regular design and adds a copper tinge to it after the Texas Longhorns. The honey-badger at the rear is also wearing a American football jersey. This is another nice helmet by JMD helmets.
Zhou Guanyu - US GP
Zhou's helmet is all leather inspired. I remember doing a similar effect for Perez back in 2021, but this one takes two leather tones and stitching effects. The design spills over to the visor strip, which is unusual, but I'm quite pleased with the results of this one. He also has a nice sheriff badge on the rear, nice stuff from KV Designs.
Pierre Gasly - Brazilian GP
This helmet was 'designed by his friends'. Actually it's just his regular helmet design by Adrien Paviot with messages from his friends... and Yuki. There's one particularly touching message where Pierre was asked to be the Godfather to baby Marceau. Team Gasly confirmed he said yes. Wholesome stuff!
Esteban Ocon - Brazilian GP
This helmet just says Brazil really, with its bright blue, yellow and greens, the palm leaves along with the football inspired twist. KV Designs has been busy!
Lewis Hamilton - Brazilian GP
Speaking of KV Designs, here's another one. Sir Lewis Hamilton was made an honourary Brazilian citizen last year, and has another Senna inspired twist to his helmet, with Jesus the Redeemer making a return to the rear of his helmet.
Oscar Piastri - Las Vegas GP
This is more of a sponsor induced helmet, with Google taking over the design with the colours of its Chrome brand. Having said that, it's not a bad design, the bold primary colours really do pop nicely on a black helmet. A nice helmet, this time from MDM Designs.
Esteban Ocon - Las Vegas GP
Esteban wanted to celebrate the Alpine team receiving new investment recently, one of whom included the Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds. Deadpool's helmet is nicely worked into Esteban's regular design and it looks great in my opinion. This is another KV Designs helmet.
Kevin Magnussen - Las Vegas GP
Daniel Ricciardo - Las Vegas & Abu Dhabi GP
Danny Ric has gone all chrome for the final two races, both of which took place under flood lights. The logos are embossed and it's a nice variation on his regular design. JMD helmets has done a great job on the real helmet, and I hope to have captured something of its beauty in this one.
Max Verstappen - Las Vegas GP
Max's final special helmet of the year is typically Vegas inspired, going with the illuminous yellow and chrome tones. The personalised playing cards are a nice touch. KV Designs is responsible for this one and is painted by JMD helmets, what a lovely collaboration.
Lance Stroll - Las Vegas GP
Lance Stroll rocked up with this neon green version of his helmet for the Las Vegas GP. Nice work from Mark Antar, who has been responsible for Lance's helmets for the last few years.
Yuki Tsunoda - Las Vegas GP
Yuki's used two main helmet designers in recent years, and this is the final offering from Wood Eye Design, going with a coppery-gold monotone helmet design.
Pierre Gasly - Abu Dhabi GP
Whilst Gasly's last design wholesome, his helmet design announcement was sadly a little ill-timed. Binance ran a fan competition to design the helmet for the final race of the year, with over 700 entries from over 140 countries. The winning entry is nice enough. But the announcement came less than a day after the cryptocurrency's former CEO resigned and pleaded guilty to money laundering charges.
Kevin Magnussen - Abu Dhabi GP
K-Mag ran a silver version of his helmet with sky blue highlights. He did a similar thing last season, making the most of the night lights. This is the final helmet design by KV Designs in my helmet set for 2023.
Yuki Tsunoda - Abu Dhabi GP
Servus Franz. After over a decade as a Team Principal, Franz Tost enjoyed his last race in charge of the team in Abu Dhabi. He can take a lot of credit in helping Tsunoda become a more accomplished F1 driver, and Yuki has added this lovely tribute to his boss with a nice black and white photo of them hugging on the top of his lid. The leaves are glittery and gone are the orange leaves and in with the silver ones. Yuki is using a Adrien Paviot design here and is the only driver on the grid to wear an Arai helmet this season.
By my count, that's 20 new helmets for you in this latest 2023 helmet pack.
A massive thanks to Nick9320 for the renders, they are brilliant.
Thanks as always goes to Jvinu, whose shapes and templates I've used and edited.
Thanks also goes to rracunis, who has kindly shared with me his Tweaker visors and also created track specific visors for the McLaren drivers. Massive job, thank you.
For the download link and previews to all the other helmets, click on the link below:
Also don't forget about the 2023 downloads page which has links to released updates: here
