“Now Is My Moment”: Lewis Hamilton Had to Wait 15 Years to Use a Color on His Helmet Because of Valentino Rossi

Lewis Hamilton races with a bright neon helmet laced with portions of purple all around it. This has been a trademark color for the British driver in Formula 1 off late. However, the Mercedes star had to wait for 15 long years before he could use this color, and all because of Valentino Rossi, as he said to Sky Sports F1.

For the last two seasons, Hamilton has been using helmets primarily of this color. This has now become his go-to color as he introduced it in the 2022 F1 season. Admittedly, the Silver Arrows ace was fond of using a full purple helmet, until he changed to neon.

The seven-time world champion also used neon during the early days of his motorsport career and had inspirational designs from his formative years. However, he was reluctant to use neon as his color because it belonged to Rossi.

Lewis Hamilton reveals why he changed his color to neon

Hamilton recently appeared in a video where he talked about what an F1 driver wears, the regrets he has, and everything related to it. There he also mentioned why he changed his helmet color.

Talking about this, the 38-year-old shared, “I didn’t want to bring neon into my design as Valentino Rossi kind of owned the neon.” He then added, “Then he retired, and I was like okay now is my moment, I can now grab it. So I brought it into our design last year and I love it.”

Valentino Rossi is the most renowned MotoGP legend on the planet and surely one of the top names in motorsport. Admittedly, the Mercedes driver is very much attached to his helmet as he feels proud to carry the piece to the ‘battlefield.’

Hamilton and his fascination with helmets

A helmet is a very important part of a driver’s safety gear and Lewis Hamilton does not joke around with that. As much as he cares about the design of the helmet, he also makes sure the helmet is the toughest of all.

The helmet he uses has the toughness to withstand any metal coming at him at 100 miles an hour. Talking about the significance of purple, the Briton revealed it is his favorite color.

Furthermore, he also had the color on his helmet since his go-kart days. Therefore, he incorporated the color in his helmet all because of the attachments he has. Last, but not the least, Hamilton can have a new helmet every race weekend. Therefore, he does not have to keep the same helmet intact as he had to during his childhood.