Mathias Beche, driver of the No. 12 Rebellion R-One AER with Nick Heidfeld and Nicolas Prost during this 24 Hours of Le Mans, has just changed the design of his helmet. Here he shares his thoughts on the process:

His references: "The mythical helmets such as those of Ayrton Senna, Rubens Barichello, Takuma Sato or even François Cevert were composed of very simple elements. I wished to keep my identity with something simple as you can’t recognize 95% of the helmets."

The colours: "The colours of my helmet are red and white. When I was young, my father wanted people to recognize me. Red is the colour of family, the one my father has always liked. Then red and white are also the colours of the Swiss flag. The idea was to have a sort of “war paint” with a red band in the middle of the helmet, very much like the hair of an Iroquois warrior."

His plan: "I have never really wanted to modify my helmet or, if I have, it was always done with little touches. At the end of 2014, I contacted Stéphane Brun from Gaazmaster Motorsport. He is very clever in design and I wanted to have another aspect. The aim was to have something very recognisable that suits me without changing everything!"

The process: "The designer first showed me different designs. I looked at them carefully, but he presented ideas that didn’t correspond to what I wanted. The red band in the centre was still in mind. I loved the designs but they didn’t correspond to me. I then guided him towards something I would like. Right from the first ideas, we kept two small things. The first is the wing, on the side, that was more extended compared to the old helmet. I like this image, as if you can fly, being in a constant movement. I also wanted to keep something aggressive. Then, there is also the metal-strapped that I didn’t want dominant. The idea of bringing something round in an aggressive design was something that attracted me. He then showed me other designs corresponding to my corrections. It was long and difficult. We began working in September and finished in March. There were pauses between each of our meetings where we both took time to think it over.

"Once the choice was validated, Stéphane made it on a helmet in 3D and I then sent everything to the painter, Eric Milano from Aéro Magic, who does the helmets of Romain Grosjean (driver Lotus Formula 1 Team). Once finished, I sent it all to Bell (manufacturer of helmets) for the final assembly."

David Bristol / ACO