Gilles and Jacques Villeneuve may have had wildly different personalities, but as exemplified by their crash helmet designs, both were fiercely individual
“One of Jacques Villeneuve’s earliest memories is of his father Gilles colouring in his now-famous crash helmet design on a prototype lid as they sat in the family motorhome.
In a manner not dissimilar to his driving style, the older Villeneuve sketched out the colours on instinct and managed to get it right first time, creating iconic headgear in the process. The sight of Gilles’ orange and dark blue helmet behind the wheel of his Ferrari as he power-slid to victory became synonymous with turbo-era Formula 1.
It’s a tale told in a new book, Formula Helmet, which tells the story of F1 between 1969 and 1999 through the perspective of the crash helmets, accompanied by stunning photography and interviews with some of the designers.”
In an extract below, Jacques describes the precision that his father brought to his helmet design, and the significance of his own design — so much so that he rejected a contract that required him to change it.
The 1997 F1 World Champion and winner of the 1995 Indianapolis 500 and Indy Car World Series also relied on the protection of his lid in a fair share of crashes too, the French-Canadian famously ending up in the barrier at Eau Rouge in ’99 after making a bet with BAR team-mate Ricardo Zonta that he could take it flat.
Formula Helmet by Bruno Bayol examines the fascinating history of the F1 driver’s crash helmet, with particular focus on closed face designs from 1969 to 1999. As well as providing a history and development of brands such as Arai, Bell and GPA, the book features captivating driver accounts of how their helmet designs came to be and when they needed them most.” – James Elson wrote for motorsportmagazine.com
From father to son: Villeneuve’s identity
“I remember seeing my father doing his design. In his motorhome, he used Crayola pencils on his white helmet. Again, there was no explanation about the design, but it was very precise. The blue needed to be very deep, almost black. The orange had to be very deep too, but not red. He surely had an idea, but it didn’t represent anything in particular. During our times in Formula 1, helmets were our business cards. We had to keep them for our entire career. Usually, drivers made the design themselves, whether it was pretty or ugly. Nowadays, drivers hire designers. Their helmets are precise but from a long distance, it’s a mix of colours hardly identifiable.”
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