George Russell started his F1 career driving for Williams and is now racing for Mercedes.
He’s had a number of different helmet designs since he joined Formula 1, none of them are particularly exciting
So to give him some inspiration I’ve asked AI to come up with some new designs for Princess George.
George's real helmets
When George began his F1 career driving for Williams in 2019 his helmet design was very much in keeping with the blue, white and red colour scheme of the ROKiT sponsored car he was driving.
The bright red and baby blue were quite constrating and to me made the helmet look a little bit like a toy.
By the time he’d moved to Mercedes in 2022 his helmet designs had changed fairly substantially, and for the better.
The colours had gone darker and all worked together much more cohesively. These helmets looked much more professional.
In 2024 he’s gone back to using mainly blue for his helmet, in a matte finish.
As ever, his racing number 63 is painted in big bold numbers on the side of his lid.
2024 helmet design of George Russell
— F1 Helmets (@F1HLM) February 15, 2024
🎨 MDM Designs#gr63 #russell #mercedesf1 #f1 #formula1 #motorsport pic.twitter.com/7PpvzgDLnV
AI helmet designs
I think you’ll agree that George has had some nice helmet designs over the years, with the more recent ones being the best.
But not of them have blown me away. I think Georgey boy might need some inspiration to help him come up with some more ideas.
So I’ve recruited AI to help out. I asked it to come up with some helmet designs for George. It hasn’t let me down.
This is the first design it came up with. Despite its inability to spell Mercedes correctly, it’s drawn up a pretty stealthy looking lid design.
George hasn’t had an all-black helmet yet but this could well be a contender. It’s nice to see the Union Jack make an appearance and the (slightly skewiff) number 63 is still present.
This is kinda cool. I prefer it to the previous design as the Union Jack now faetures across the whole helmet, kind of like it did on some of Jenson Button’s old lids.
I don’t think Mercedes or their sponsors will be happy about the lack of commercial logos on it. But I’m very happy to see ‘Mr Sunday’ on there, the nickname Merc gave George after some expectional race-day performances.
Maybe this has taken the Union Jack theme a little too far. Plus the whole design now looks a little too busy.
Not my cup of tea, as George would say.
Well this is very different.
AI has decided that what George wants is an image of himself doing a pose very similar to that intro pose on the side of his own helmet. I’m all for it.
I’m not sure what the gubbins attached to the back of the helmet are but I don’t think they’d pass FIA standards so that would have to go.
But it’s nice to see some of George’s trademark blue making its way back in to the design.
You know what, this is actually a pretty damn good design.
Yes the Mercedes logos are a bit on the wonk, and it appears the team is now sponsored by ‘Petronaes’ and ‘Petronasxs’. But the blocks of colour, different shades of blue and the big 63 at the top are all solid work from our artificially intelligent designers.
Obviously AI wasn’t done with giving George a depiction of himself on his own helmet.
Once again we’ve got another arms-out George pose, but this time he’s looking upwards a little more. I can’t tell if he’s just won a race or just crashed out and is looking to the heavens in for divine guidance.
I know having an image of yourself on the side of your lid is a pretty self-indulgent thing to do, but I dig it.
Other AI helmet designs:
Max Verstappen gave Russell the nickname ‘Princess George’ after the two drivers made contact during the sprint race at the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
AI has obviously taken that theme and run with it. It’s run a very long way, infact.
Not content with simply painting a crown on the top of his helmet, it’s actually placed a physical one there instead. I don’t think it will help much with aerodynamics, unless the crown has a DRS mode?
Ok this might be pushing the boat out a little too far.
In AI’s defence, I did ask it to depict an image of George doing his infamous “Titanic-like pose” on the side of his helmet.
And whilst it has given us the full Titantic Rose and Jack pose, it’s also put an image of the doomed cruise liner on the helmet. Not what I expected.
Hopefully it’s not a sign of things to come. Fingers crossed Mercedes can turn their lacklustre performance around, before George decides to abandon the sinking ship.
