JB- New Lid Design?

[indigorallye]

Will Jenson be adopting the McLaren colours on his lid for the new season? I assume he's going to stick with the general design, but wont be retaining the 'Brawn Yellow!'

[mchammer89]

Don't see why he would, it's not like Merc are gonna be the same colour as Brawn were.

[TheArchitect]

Hopefully it'll be a development of the union jack design he uses. Hamiltons is based on Sennas is it not? JB will probably have his own helmet design inspired on the mclaren colours.

[ajprice]

Probably keep the red/blue union jack design, with the sponsors changed, so Vodafone around the band above the visor and so on. I think the Ray Ban logo on his visor is Jenson's own sponsorship though.

[mattikake]

JB should keep it as it originally was. Best patriotic design since Mansell's IMO. I hate this craze (started by Schumi or Alesi?) of drivers changing their helmet designs all the time. Much less than anything else, makes them a biatch to identify on track!

[indigorallye]

Lewis' is not based on Senna's. His dad was worried about spotting him in his karting days, so instead of having white he decided he liked yellow. He also chose blue and red to go with it. When he became a McLaren driver he changed the shade of red to adhere to corporacy. It was just a coincidence that his hero also wore yellow.
Regarding JB's, I too really like the original design and hope he goes for that.
Since posting I noticed that he runs a competition whereby the public can design a lid on his website. He then wears the winning design at the British GP- nice touch!

[indigorallye]

His lidfrom '09:

[lozriva]

looking forward to seeing what he comes up with for new design, i would imagine it will be a new design. I don't think he will keep the old one.
Just seen a pic of him online with the McMerc colours on, and what looks like an amazing piece of design in the rear spoiler!

http://twitpic.com/w7g2w

[beakr]

I would be genuinely amazed if they took that picture next to next years spoiler - McLaren won't be giving anything away...

[lewis1]

Somehow get the feeling he wont be using Bell next year.
Would be nice if he kept the original scheme.
Also Schumacher only changed his helmet a few times so he hardly set that trend.

[flemke]

ajprice said:

Probably keep the red/blue union jack design, with the sponsors changed, so Vodafone around the band above the visor and so on. I think the Ray Ban logo on his visor is Jenson's own sponsorship though.

The Union Jack on its own is a fine idea. The (main) problem is that some bright spark thought that they should try to turn "JB" into the axes of the UJ, and the result is a mish-mash.
They should have either used a "JB" that was designed in its own right, not arbitrarily jammed into the flag design, or used the flag design in its own right, not arbitrarily twisted into a couple of initials and in the wrong colours to boot.

[williamp]

Hes obviously not superstitious. He was doing really well until he changed his helmet in time for the British Grand Prix. He never won another race...

[lozriva]

beakr said:

I would be genuinely amazed if they took that picture next to next years spoiler - McLaren won't be giving anything away...

I would imagine that is correct ye, the pic came from one of their media team. Not sure on the info of the spoiler. But what a peice it is, look at that thing! awsome!

[StevieBee]

Best lid ever IMO.

Wouldn't work as well in F1 though.

[thestig84]

lozriva said:

beakr said:

I would be genuinely amazed if they took that picture next to next years spoiler - McLaren won't be giving anything away...

I would imagine that is correct ye, the pic came from one of their media team. Not sure on the info of the spoiler. But what a peice it is, look at that thing! awsome!

Its last years high downforce wing used at monaco and hungary. http://www.formula1.com/news/technical/2009/810/66...

Also Im not sure Jenson will be allowed to keep personal sponsor Rayban. Mclaren are strict on personal sponsors. All teammates have the same sponsors on their helmets....at least recently anyway.

[anonymous-user]

StevieBee said:

Best lid ever IMO.

Wouldn't work as well in F1 though.

That and the Donkey version were moments of genius.

[kiteless]

StevieBee said:

Best lid ever IMO.

Wouldn't work as well in F1 though.

And only worked at Mugello, where the straight is well over 1km in length, with a 200mph+ left hand kink two thirds of the way along.

indeed.

Especially if your name is Shinya Nakano riding a Kawasaki!

[Taffer]

^ Yep - Rossi's changing helmet designs have (almost) always been well done and the replicas provide good sales for AGV. You can buy replicas of the Face and the Donkey, and now they will make one with your own mug on it:

http://www.valentinosface.com/

Not recommended for areas with forward-facing speed cameras!

[dpbird90]

StevieBee said:

Best lid ever IMO.

Wouldn't work as well in F1 though.

Hmm, what we need in F1 is something like that, but with a massive penis instead of the face. And it is worn by the driver who did the most stupid thing in the previous race. Good job Piquet got sacked!

[team underdog]

If it were me I'd go for a chrome and matt black version of the Brawn design.

Wonder whether Schumacher will keep the orange lid? Suspect Merc would not be very approving though!