‘I went a bit crazy with it’ – Joseph Loake on his special Silverstone helmet design

Joseph Loake has certainly made a name for himself since joining the Formula 3 paddock, impressing both on and off the track so far in his rookie year.

The Rodin Motorsport driver was in good spirits ahead of his home round at Silverstone last time out where to commemorate the experience with a special one-off helmet design. Prior to the weekend’s event unfolding, we caught up with him to talk about his new lid.

“So, my first helmet design was actually in Formula 4. I had it at the start of 2021, I used that for two seasons, and it wasn't one that I put a lot of effort into, with it being our first one I was like well let's just start off with something and it's not just a white blank canvas. It wasn't anything too special, it was okay, but you wouldn't pick it as your standout helmet and after that one I wanted to start moving forward, have a nicer helmet and make it a little bit more personalised, something more exciting.

READ MORE: Wisnicki targeting more points with Rodin after P5 in Silverstone Feature Race

“Going into GB3, I wanted to mix it up a little bit so I basically looked around every other helmet that I could find and tried to find something that nobody had ever done. There was a bit of paint splatter that I could see but it was never anything high up or anything people would know off. So, I was like let's just chuck away the paint a bit and see what happens. Obviously then I put the design over the top of it and made it quite cool as well, it was quite a cool helmet. I'm still to this day quite proud of it, still running it now and it's pretty iconic to me in a way, and it means a lot to me as well.

“I didn't take any inspiration from my first one for my current helmet, mainly because after using it for two years I didn't really like it. I think that can happen, you fall out of love with your helmet, and it doesn't have that same wow factor you have when you first get it.

GALLERY: Behind the scenes of F3's triple header

“For this special helmet, there wasn't really a starting point, we wanted something that was British for this Grand Prix. It's my first home Grand Prix as well which is going to be quite special, seeing all the fans around is going to be quite a special moment in my career and to be honest I just wanted something that marks the occasion.

“So, I just thought let's just go white, blue, red in traditional British colours, but I didn't want it to be a British flag, it's so boring to just do that. So, I was like you know what, let's just chuck a few triangles at it and that was kind of one of the first things we tried, we tried loads of different things but just couldn't get it how we wanted it, we settled for what I have now and safe to say I am quite proud of it.

“The first helmet I had in 2021 was done by Abbi Pulling's helmet company, AJ Designs and she did it for me back then, but I didn't say anything specific, I just wanted something. From then on, one of my close friends Loveland Media, they do all my social media on top of designing my helmets.

"I spend a lot of time with him, doing them, just to make sure that everything is going how I would like it, I can be quite picky with this stuff, and I am sure he will tell you himself that I am quite annoying when it comes to designing helmets. At the end of the day, when you get to see the finished product, it just ends up looking amazing, same as my 2023 helmet that I carried through to this year and my British Grand Prix helmet, I think they are very unique and something that you are not going to see for a while.

Mixed conditions make for mixed results: Silverstone Team-by-Team Roundup

“It's hard to say my favourite parts. You've got the Young Driver of the year award at the front, I made sure that was nice and big at the front. I wanted to make sure that people knew how special it was to me that I won that award and to be honest it's the main reason why I am in Formula 3 now, so I can't thank everyone involved in the award enough for that.

But apart from that there is no specific thing that I really wanted to have on there. I wanted it to be very British Grand Prix, very patriotic in a way, but the whole helmet in general is so amazing and to put it together, I just wanted to make sure it is pretty special to me.

“I don't know if I would use a special helmet for the next British Grand Prix. The main thing for this one is to make sure that it was going to be my first British Grand Prix, I am also going to use it in my Formula 1 test in August and then I definitely won’t use it again, I think that's the plan.

WHAT WE LEARNED: The key takeaways from Round 7 at Silverstone

"I might eat my own words on that, you might see me running it out in Hungary if I decide against that, but I wanted it to be a special helmet for me and I think that's the main thing. It's safe to say I managed to capture a bit of the personality I have, I like to say I am a bit out there and that's why I went a bit crazy with it.”