Finnish flair: Tuukka Taponen on his 2026 helmet design

Tuukka Taponen is the latest driver on the 2026 grid to talk us through their helmet design. The MP Motorsport driver explains how the design came to be, Finnish influence and what he rates as his favourite part of the look.

"The blue represents the Finnish colours and I have always had quite a lot of blue in the helmet and I like to have also a lot of white because it makes the helmet quite fresh. If there's too much blue or other colours, it makes it a bit messier. Then there's a touch of the colour of the team that I'm driving with, so now it's orange because of MP.

"I always have the lion on the top of the helmet. I think, for me, it's the best helmet I have had in my single-seater career so far.

"My designer wanted to put these small flakes on the helmet. It looks good. UFED Designs did this one, they also did for Kimi Räikkönen in the past. So there's a Finnish connection there too.

"I've been happy with him. He's always asking first of all the colours I want and then what do you want to change to the previous helmets and then I tell him okay, I want these colours: blue, white and orange.

"Then from the previous helmet I'm always asking for slight changes, but this is pretty close to the one I had before. It's just a bit of change in the front and on the side as well, the back is very similar to what it was.

"So I let him have free reign to do what he wants, then he sends me the picture and then asks how is it looking and I say maybe change this or it's good.

"It's a Bell helmet, I think most of the guys are using Bell, but I'm very happy with them, they're very good.

"I would say this is my favourite part, at the top. Having the lion there looks very cool. The only thing I need now is a sponsor here, definitely got the space for it."