Estonian pride and Monaco memories: The story behind Paul Aron’s helmet designs

9 June 2023

Donning a unique helmet that just screams him, Paul Aron’s white and blue lid has dazzled on the Formula 3 grid this season. Celebrating his Estonian heritage, the PREMA Racing driver talks us through the artistic flare to his 2023 design and the brotherly bond behind it.

Additionally, the Mercedes junior rolled the dice with a striking special edition lid in Monte Carlo. Aron explains how the design helped put a positive spin on his most challenging moments.

“My very, very first painted helmet only lasted about one day! I received my helmet and I had a go-kart race straight after where I flipped and broke the helmet. Ever since then I’ve had the blue and white design. Obviously, the Estonian flag is blue, black, and white, so they’ve always been my colours ever since karting, same with my brother. I think not many people on the grid or generally in motorsport have this kind of colour scheme and I’m quite proud of it.

“Funny story with our helmets is that when we were karting, my brother used to have blue as the main colour and everywhere else was white accents and I had the opposite, so where he had blue, I had white and vice versa. But then since my brother stopped racing, I liked his design more so I took it over, and in respect to him. I changed my base colour to blue as well so I flipped it back over – that’s been my helmet colour scheme throughout the years. It’s a bit awkward now, so I’m feeling the retro vibes and thinking about going back to my roots, but as I’ve gone up through the years, I’ve added small touches and details to the helmet so they differ.

“This year, I tried to do something a bit different. I made the front part more blue, which is something I haven’t had before and I added a bit of black. I added an Estonian flag, I’m proud to be an Estonian and proud to represent my country, so I wanted to show them that. There are a few things that are different, but I’m feeling like going back to the old ways – having more white and making it a bit simpler. I also have the chrome, which is cool, but I feel like I’m getting a bit more of the retro vibes again, so I’m thinking about going back to what I had a few years ago. This year I went a bit crazy, but usually my helmets have been quite simple but very effective because they stand out and I think that’s the beauty of a good helmet.

“I've been working together with Uffedesigns for quite a long time. He’s designed most of my helmets and the thing with him is that he’s an artist, so you can always tell him ideas. I always have ideas about what I want to do with my helmets, but you never quite know what you’ll get, which I like about him. He puts his artistic touch on every helmet, so everything is a bit special and I think that’s what a helmet should be about. You don’t want something that everybody else has, you want something special. I know only an artistic person can do that.

“Every year I’ve had a helmet which I’ve really, really liked. This year I tried some new things and I feel like it was maybe a bit too much. I will have another helmet for this year and I’m thinking about going back to the basics a bit more. That’s all I can wish and ask for. I think your helmet can’t be too complicated, it has to be simple but stand out and show your personality and I feel like that’s what I’ve done with all my helmets.

“I’ve always been into designing helmets and I’ve been interested in doing a special one, but I’ve never really had the opportunity to do it before. This year, I had one extra helmet and taking into account the prestige and glamour of Monaco, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to do a special one. I had a lot of fun designing this helmet. Uffe did a great job and we had some great ideas and I think we came out with one of my favourite helmets ever!

“It’s definitely crazy and eye-catching, but I think that’s how it should be in Monaco and that was my goal. I added the Monégasque flag to pay respect to the country and a tribute to the casinos with some details and touches. There’s a picture of me actually driving the track last year, which was a must in my eyes. I thought everybody puts a picture of Monaco on their helmet, but I’ve never seen somebody put a picture of themselves driving in Monaco on it – I wanted it to stand out and be special.

“Also, on the front of the helmet there’s me driving around and we have the Casino Corner, which is one of the most famous corners in Monaco. These two pictures were a must for me because I wanted people to understand what the helmet is about. I didn’t want to just have any other random car and driver driving the track, I wanted to have me as a driver as I’ve been on the track before. That’s what we did and I’m super proud of the helmet.

“So far, everybody I’ve spoken to about it has been super impressed and very proud of the helmet. Even Uffe himself said he was very happy with how the helmet turned out. Obviously, it’s been nice and we even got a podium in Monaco. Luckily, we got to show the helmet, as it would have been a bit embarrassing if I had a special helmet there and didn’t do well.

“I’d been wanting to do a special helmet for a long time and I put all the ideas I had into this one, so that’s why it turned out so crazy. It’s about the moment – whatever race it is, whatever special helmet you’re doing, whatever you’re feeling in the moment, you need to follow that and that’s how cool things turn out.

"This one was extra special because last year I had the most difficult race weekend of my life there, one of the most difficult weekends ever in my life. It was a very tough time for me and I feel like with this helmet I made a statement that however bad the memories you have of a place are or however bad the history can be, you can always comeback. There’s always time for redemption and that’s what we did!”