Tagged: stuff

General

Design: Gilles Villeneuve’s 1980 helmet

There are hardly more tragic stories than that of Gilles Villeneuve. The Canadian driver drove his first race in 1977 for McLaren, but was picked up by Ferrari for the final two races of the 1977 season. He won his first race in the following 1978 season at his home grand prix. He came close to winning the 1979 championship, but was plagued with problems in the ’80 and ’81 seasons. Then, finally, Ferrari seemed to have built a title challenger for the 1982 season.  After two retirements, Villeneuve came...

Art / Racing

Design: Damon Hill’s 1996 helmet

As a young Schumacher fan growing up in the early ’90s, Damon Hill was the antagonist I loved to hate. Not just the infamous ’94 clash in Australia which saw Schumacher take his first WDC, but also the ’96 season in which Hill defeated Schumacher. He gained some of my sympathy when he was booted off Williams for the ’97 season, having to race for Arrows as all other seats at the time were taken. After that, he went to drive for Jordan, but slowly disappeared into obscurity only to...

Art / Racing

Design: Niki Lauda’s 1984 helmet

Niki Lauda is perhaps among the top three of the most famous drivers F1 has had, next to Schumacher and Senna. The Austrian driver entered Formula 1 in 1971 and had his last season in 1985. Not only is he known for the three world titles he achieved during his career and being the only one doing so with both Ferrari and McLaren, he is probably best remembered by his horrible crash at the Nürburgring which left most of his face with third degree burns. The title challenge between him...