The Language Of Racers’ Helmets

[Hugh Janus]

Aldo Drudi's latest helmet design was created for Racing Colors Against the Virus, an initiative to raise funds for the Italian Red Cross. (Dainese/)

For Valentino Rossi and teammate Maverick Viñales, the color of the world after the pandemic is the blue of the Adriatic Sea (and its dolphins) off Misano, Italy. For Fabio Quartararo and Franco Morbidelli it’s the black and yellow of the bees, sometimes regarded as thermometers for our planet’s health. For Cal Crutchlow or Superbike ace Jonathan Rea or Formula One driver Antonio Giovinazzi, it’s a rainbow’s arc or the black and white markings of a swallow.  

It took just 45 minutes for renowned helmet painter and designer Aldo Drudi to gather 20 of these top racers and have them pledge support for “Racing Colors Against the Virus,” Drudi’s charity initiative to raise funds for the Italian Red Cross. Drudi created a special one-off helmet that was raffled off this week, with participants asked to donate to the organization.

This special one-off helmet with the support of multiple top-tier riders and racers, was raffled off and the winner declared this week. (Dainese/)

But then Drudi is no stranger to the MotoGP and World Superbike scene; he’s been the creative force behind all of Rossi’s helmet designs (as well as many other MotoGP riders), and his work goes back decades. In fact, before he was even a designer, Aldo used to train and then work with Valentino’s dad Graziano, on Misano’s shore. Graziano was the first Italian racer to really embrace symbols and colors to decorate his helmet. After Graziano, Drudi’s work found its way to an endless list of champions: from Kevin Schwantz and Mick Doohan to Valentino Rossi, and now the younger generation represented by Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales, Franco Morbidelli, Andrea Migno, and Mattia Casadei, to name just a few.

RELATED: The Stories Behind Valentino Rossi’s Special Home-Race Helmets

We sat down to talk to Drudi about that work, and he shared with us the meanings behind some of those colors and motifs, and how the racers use them.

Drudi is the creative force behind a host of champions’ helmets, including lids for Mick Doohan, Kevin Schwantz, and Valentino Rossi. (Dainese/)

The helmet may be the most intimate item a racer shows to the outside world. It reveals a lot about the person wearing it. 

When we sit down to create the new graphic for a helmet, the rider opens the doors to his fears and his dreams. I consider myself privileged because in my work I get to share the racer’s most intimate moments: the joy of going out on track with a new helmet or the moment of the defeat or the loss. 

Can the riders be seen as modern knights?

They are the knights of this millennium. Throughout my career, I also had the incredible occasion to design protection for some of Dainese’s racing gear. Mr. Lino Dainese was my mentor, and I learned a lot from him. Moreover, I took inspiration from medieval armors [during the design phase] and following Doctor [Claudio] Costa’s advice to protect the rider without limiting his natural movements during a crash. 

What is the meaning of the colors on a racer’s helmet?

I studied the knights of the Middle Ages as well as native Americans to see how they dressed for battle. The colors represented their belonging to a clan, and it was a way of camouflaging or exorcising fear. For a racer, wearing a helmet is also like wearing armor. Customizing a helmet with personal colors and symbols is a ritual that a rider repeats every season or for special occasions, such as a home GP race. It becomes a sort of protection, an extra motivation, a message to oneself as well as to the rivals, just like the Sioux or Cheyenne used to paint their faces and horses before going into a battle.

As with all his designs, Drudi’s Marco Simoncelli graphics are instantly recognizable. (Dainese/)

Are the riders aware of such a strong link?

Every rider is aware of the power of those colors and symbols, though not all have the same level of awareness. One day I invited the riders I work with to visit the Uffizi museum in Firenze [Florence, Italy] and I was impressed by their reaction. They were fascinated by the paintings of Botticelli, Donatello, and Leonardo. They went crazy for Michelangelo’s David. They saw themselves in the bravery, the awareness, and the challenge of this young guy against the giant Goliath. It took David’s cunning and skill to defeat someone bigger than him, and he did so with just a simple slingshot. I see the same awareness in approaching a race in the eyes of the champions. It was this awareness that impressed me the first time I saw Valentino putting on his racing gear. He was still a kid, competing in the Italian Championship, but his gaze already showed all the awareness of the sports competitor. Motorcycle racing is very special, as it’s an alchemy between the rider and the bike. The body of the rider is part of the chassis, and the champions are very aware of this dance on the edge of the human limits.

Racers like certain colors and symbols to tap into the mood of a race, which Drudi says influences his designs. (Dainese/)

It seems like each of your helmets reflects the personality of the rider.

My work began with Graziano Rossi, Valentino’s dad. We started by designing an enchanted castle with a rainbow, and it was such an original helmet for those years, but Graziano was like that. He was special and Valentino has inherited his taste for colors, graphics, and the fun of racing.

What was unique about Kevin Schwantz?

With Kevin we switched things up with the brazen use of yellow. It was sort of revolutionary in those days, but the helmets achieved a sales record. On the front of the helmet we used the checks of the checkered flag. On the back we used a flash of yellow that looked impressive on TV. The yellow color indicates nervousness. That helmet reflected his personality so well, and his special way of riding, screwed on the bike. That helmet was a sales record.

You have colors but also symbols, and even animals, that have great meaning for the riders.

These are all part of the feelings that racers share before the start: the mix of courage, fear, and adrenaline. The conscious use of colors and symbols help them to exorcise the fear, to feel extra protection and motivation. Mick Doohan, for example, had a koala on his helmet. When I sketched out his new helmet, I redesigned his original koala from relaxed to more aggressive, following the Anglo-Saxon trend. He didn’t like it. He wanted his looser koala back. Only at that point did I understand that the koala had a deeper meaning; it reflected Mick’s laid-back attitude off the track. 

If you think about Valentino’s iconography, the sun and the moon have become a staple of his helmets. These two symbols represent the two faces of his character; the solar side for the friends, and the moon for his more reflective side. Valentino also likes the symbol of a turtle, which he had tattooed on his belly when he was young. He liked it mostly because it was the symbol of Italian motorsport legend Tazio Nuvolari.

Rossi’s helmet designs have evolved over the years, going from detailed bursts of color to simple, strong statements. (Dainese/)

Valentino’s helmets almost always speak about himself.

Yes, they are iconic and most of the time ironic. He has a great self-irony, like with the donkey helmet from Misano. The Italian GP round came after the crash in the United States and Valentino had commented that the race didn’t go well and that he was a donkey. The design never refers to someone else and is never an answer to some other rider. Valentino follows the design of the helmet with the same dedication and manic precision as he does when preparing himself and the bike for a race. A special helmet helps him channel the mood of the race, and for this reason it has to be done perfectly. When you do everything perfect, you win the race—helmet included. Over the years, the graphics of the helmets reflect his growth. From “Rossifumi,” to “the Doctor,” to “la tribù dei Chihuahua.” Valentino is so eclectic that he has gone through an incredible variety of designs to immortalize specific moments of his career or special occasions such as the Mugello GP. Now on the back of his helmet you see his name: Valentino Rossi. What is the reason behind this urge? Who doesn’t know him? By stating his name, Valentino makes it an act of responsibility.   

On Franco Morbidelli’s helmet the Italian and the Brazilian flags stand out. We stylized the two flags as a reflection of his persona. Born in Rome to a Brazilian mother and Italian father, Franco is the son of two cultures. From his mom Cristina, he inherited the love of samba, nature, and life. Calm and relaxation come from the Brazilian side of his family, while from his dad Livio, he learned to be as serious as possible at work. Behind these two flags there is a whole world.

Drudi called Simoncelli’s simple and clean helmet design “powerful.” (Dainese/)

You also worked with Marco Simoncelli, right?

Do you remember his helmet? Two red stripes on a white background. That design was so simple and so powerful. It was Marco. He was like that: He was simple, in that way that he reduced everything to its essence.

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