Norris plans to change F1 helmet design at every race

Lando Norris says he is planning to alter his helmet design at every race during the 2020 season to take advantage of Formula 1’s relaxed policy.

The FIA lifted the ban on design changes for this year, with the ruling previously restricting drivers to two major alterations per season.

Speaking ahead of the cancelled Australian Grand Prix, Norris revealed he wanted to make the most of the rules change.

“I’ve got a lot of planned, it’s one of the best things about this year,” Norris said.

“I am planning to hopefully try to have one one new special every race. I have them all on my wall at home. Soon they’re not going to be on the wall because I’m not going to have enough space.

“They’re one thing I get to remember every race by. So now we can mix it up a bit more and I’ll have some more exaggerated designs and more custom and colourful and stuff like that.

“I’ll still be keeping with the same concept of what I have, that’s still me, but then how everything is done around it, the colours and schemes of everything, are hopefully going to be more dedicated to each race in the country and everything like that. So a bit more character to it.”

Was of the McLaren’s drivers special livery designs in 2019 came at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, where his helmet was a tribute to his idol and MotoGP star Valentino Rossi.

And Norris wants to come up with more creative designs like the ones he used last season in 2020.

“I work with one designer mainly, MDM Designs, which is a guy who I’ve worked with since karting. He’s done everything for me,” he explained.

“So we both come up with ideas, he puts it into the proper format and then sends it to the painter and so on. A lot of them can be his ideas, some of them are my ideas.

“But then I’m still trying to work with even more designers and illustrators, more random people basically, such as my Japan helmet last year which was completely hand-painted.

“It was designed by a woman who then hand-painted it all and did it all in her own style rather than just being a normal spray paint kind of helmet.

“So it’s trying to just change it up and not having something that just always looks the same. But at the same time, I don’t always wanted to be my own design. I want other people to come up with their own versions and ideas and stuff like that.”