Creating an identity and standing out on track: Zak O’Sullivan on his 2024 helmet design

Zak O’Sullivan already has two victories to his name as a member of the Formula 2 grid, so it is fair to say he had a few standout moments so far in his rookie season.
The ART Grand Prix admittedly wants to catch the eye on track, not just with his performances but also with his helmet and recently he sat down to talk about his 2024 design – even if he currently does not have it in his possession.
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“My very first helmet design, well first I’ll tell you my first helmet was bright orange. I bought it off the shelf in karting. It wasn’t the most flattering but it was my first helmet and my first helmet design was not too far off my current one. It had orange on it again and a bit of blue as well, so I haven’t strayed too far from it but it was pretty different.
“When I moved to cars at 14, I decided that I wanted to get a design and stick with it. When I was younger, I kept chopping and changing designs, depending on what team I was racing for and I realised I didn’t have an identity, so I decided to stick to one.
“I have always been quite involved in the design of my helmets, I try to design with the designer on my own as much as I can, so I have found some inspiration. I settled on blue, white, black with a bit of gold and went from there and every helmet so far has been an evolution on that.
“On this one, we will get into my newish one later, it was designed by me. I am really into graphic design so I do all of them myself, I enjoy it and it’s something to do in the winter.
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“This is my helmet from F3, hence why it’s quite scratched up and has battle scars. The current helmet is yet to be found, it’s somewhere in Barcelona, it got stolen off the plane on the way to Barcelona, so luckily, I had this one with the team already as a spare waiting there.
“So, I had to race with this helmet, I left it on the plane, went back five minutes later and it was gone, so someone was very opportunistic and got themselves an F2 helmet.
“I think blue has kind of become my colour through racing, even before joining Williams. Obviously joining Williams helped that with the colours, it tied in quite well, but I have quite a vibrant blue and this helmet is chrome blue so in the sunlight it looks a bit lighter.
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“I think especially with the cars now, with the halo and the cockpits are quite confined, it’s important to have something that makes you stand out at least a bit on track.
“That’s what I would change on my other helmet. It’s a bit of a simplified design, a bit more of a white base, again so I would want it to stand out a bit more on track.”