Speed lines and stand-out colours: Caio Collet on his helmet design

28 September 2022

Caio Collet has one of the brightest helmets of the 2022 Formula 3 grid and that is by design.

Hear why the Brazilian had a change of colour scheme, how his design has evolved since his move to race in Europe and what his plans are if he gets to race in Brazil for a special edition version.

“The first helmet I had, it was very similar to my dad’s helmet. He used to be a rally driver and he did Dakar and that sort of stuff. I basically aimed to be the same as him so my first design and painted helmet was exactly the same as his, just with the name changed. Instead of green, it was red. I started with red and the design is quite similar to how it is now but today it’s a bit more modern. You can see a few lines, they stretch a bit more now but the design is pretty much the same. Then my mum, like every mum, wants you to look good so at some point I changed from red to green because she thought it looked better, so I listened to her. My first painted helmet was in 2010 and then in 2015, I changed to green and I really liked it. The design is really simple.

“The change was a little bit because she wanted me to stand out a bit more. To be honest, red was a bit common in karting. She said in the videos of me racing in Europe, she couldn’t really see me because the karts were the same, the helmets were similar so she said lets change the colour so I can see you on the live stream a bit better.

“I like to keep it clean, I don’t really like a lot of effects or anything like that. Of course I have a few sponsors that I have to put on the helmet. There’s a little bit writing here and here. Apart from that, nothing really special. Last year I did some nice stuff by putting some pictures on the back but this year I came back to normal spec. Maybe next year I’ll do it again, it was really cool.

“I think the front is quite nice when you see it from the front on. It’s a little bit aggressive with the lines whereas before it was not like that, we’ve stretched them a bit more now. It looks a little bit more aggressive and with the visor, when you close it, it looks quite nice I think, that’s my favourite part. With my car fully blue, it matches that.

“I’d do something special if we ever raced in Brazil. I’d do a special helmet with the Brazilian flag and some pictures from when I was young and when I was racing there. That would be nice. Apart from that, I think the only other one is Monaco. There’s a few special places where you would like a different helmet to remember it but I like my design.