Perfecting his tribute to home: the story behind Leonardo Fornaroli’s helmet design

One of 16 newcomers to Formula 3, Leonardo Fornaroli’s got his colour coordination all worked out as he hops into the cockpit of the red, white and blue #4 Trident car.

Taking inspiration from designs as he’s come up through the ranks and showing his hometown pride, the Italian racer talks us through his eye-catching crash helmet design and why it’s his perfect match.

“For this year’s helmet, we decided to use the same colours from my previous helmet – the yellow, red and the bit of white – and show the helmet’s carbon. We also decided to put some blue on the helmet because I think it looks very good with the car, we tried it and I’m really in love with the design and the quality of the Schuberth helmet.

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“Since my first helmet, I’ve had the same colours, apart from the blue. I had my first painted helmet in 2016 and it was only yellow, red and white because I loved those colours and I’ve used the same design since 2021. Yellow and red are two of my favourite colours and only for this year, we decided to put some blue on because it’s really cool with the car and the team’s colours. I think it works really well.

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“Of course, we’ve got the coat of arms of my home city Piacenza on the top and on the back of the helmet we have the tiger of my father’s company. The tiger on the back is the logo of my dad’s company, which my grandpa founded in like 1960, so a long time ago. I’ve always had it on the back of my helmet since I was a kid, as well as showing the love for my city on the spoiler.

“My favourite part of the helmet is on the side because you can see some lines of gold glitter just near to my name and I think it’s really cool to see.

“MBK Line designs my helmets and every year he’s doing some really, really cool helmets. I think this is the best one he’s ever done for me, so I’m really happy to work with him.

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“There’s actually nothing I’d change from this helmet in the future because with these types of colours, I’m really in love with the design. Maybe, I’d have to see with the colours of the car and with the team, but I think I will always stay like this.”