Shining stars and special paint: Andrea Kimi Antonelli on his 2024 helmet design

It’s a design that stands out on the grid but as Andrea Kimi Antonelli says, his design hasn’t changed much from his early racing days.
The PREMA Racing and Mercedes Junior Team driver talks us through his helmet design, detailing his favourite parts and the possibility of coming up with a special design soon…
“I have to be honest, the design of my very first helmet was fairly similar to this one. Actually, since that first helmet, I’ve wanted to keep a very similar design, just the colours have changed a little bit. But overall, the helmet has been fairly similar.
“The design was made by Lucky Design, it was him who came up with the design, I didn’t actually interfere. To be honest, I’ve liked it since the beginning and we’ve just changed a few details over the years but it’s stayed pretty similar.
“We have the colours of the Italian flag. That’s really important for me. I’m representing Italy so I want to keep the Italian colours and flag in my future designs. Then we have some blue which is my favourite colour. Two years ago I had black on the front but then I switched it to blue because I liked it more.
“The stars have been part of the design since my first helmet and I’ve always kept it. It has a nice effect around the edges. Under the sun, it has a mix of colours and has a nice effect. Even the paint under the sun, the blue parts, shines really nicely. It’s a special paint that Lucky put for this year’s helmet that makes it shine under the sun more.
“Then, this year we have the star of Mercedes on the top, and then my race number. I actually started putting that on my helmet since last year, the 12. I had it in FRECA and this year even though I race with 4. I quite like it.
“Here on the spoiler, I have AKA, so Andrea Kimi Antonelli. And then that’s it pretty much. This year on my dry helmet, I have the inside coloured blue and for the rain one I kept it grey.
“I really like how the front looks because it really shines under the sun and looks really cool.
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“It’s always been pretty easy to recognise, so that’s one of the main reasons why I’ve decided to keep the same design and maybe change the colours slightly. When my parents watch or other people watch, they can recognise that it’s me in the car really easily.
“Also, the design is quite special because it’s quite easy to recognise, that’s why it’ll be the same even in my future helmets.
“To be honest, the stars I have them because I just like them there. I really like the stars, since karting I’ve always had it and I don’t think I’ll ever remove them because they fit into the design quite well.
“Lucky was the first one to help me with a helmet design. Actually, the first helmet I had with them was made back in 2015, so since the very start. They’ve always been part of my career and helped me a lot. That’s why I have a really good relationship with them. The quality is really good and they put a lot of effort into the work and I really appreciate that.
“We’ve been together for a long time and hopefully we can carry on into the future. Going into single seaters I moved to Bell. It took a bit to adapt but I really like the helmets. I feel pretty good with it.
“We might do a special edition for Monza. I actually wanted to do it for Imola, but it was too soon into the season, but I want to do one for my second home race in Monza. In the previous years, I did a full chrome helmet, but with the same design. We’re thinking about having another chrome one too, the design won’t change much but with something to represent Italy on the helmet. That’s the idea anyway.”