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You may have seen Taylor Barnard wearing a different helmet last time out on her home weekend at Silverstone, but how did the Jenzer Motorsport driver come up with both of her 2023 looks?
Before he makes his Hungaroring debut, we caught up with Barnard to find out more about the family aspect of his main helmet and why the saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” fits perfectly with his eye-catching design.
“My dad came up with the design when I was 13 and we’ve kept the same design ever since, we just changed the colors and now have color changing holograms. We’ve changed the colors of the stripes around the helmet, but we kept the top part of the crown. We kept this same idea and just changed the middle part, but it’s more or less the same design as I have since 2017.
“Honestly, I don’t know how my dad came up with the design, he just did! I think it took inspiration from my previous helmets and brought them all together into one, and I think it looks really nice to be honest. When you’ve had the same design for so long, it’s kind of like an identity and after six years I think it looks great.
“I change the colors every year or so, like last year I had green where orange is and where blue is now I had orange. In the blue you can see we have these circles, we’re just changing little things like you have to look closely to see, but the rest of the helmet is the same.
“The first helmet my father made for me was orange and blue. I’ve had green for a few years now, so I felt like going back to orange this year. I don’t know why, but I think it looks good and matches the PHM as a whole.
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“My very first painted helmet had my name and a line that went to my initials on the other side, and I also have my initials on his helmet. This helmet was very different, we experimented for a few years before we found this that we really loved – me, my dad, my mom and even my sister. It’s not just my dad and I, we put a family effort into it because they have to be able to see it on the cameras as well.
“To be honest I really like the sides as my favorite part. I think when you have a good side part it makes the helmet really nice. Also the front part is white and when I drive I have also white gloves this year I think when I was driving Formula Regional Middle East I had a white halo, white part of the helmet and white gloves and it all fit really well Honestly it all fits together and the part side has a lot to do, but it also looks clean and tidy.
“I don’t really know what made me do whirlwinds. Some of it was going to be chrome but we didn’t have the availability to do that on this helmet so we did it white instead, but we didn’t want it to be boring. We just told the designer that we have these areas that we think can get a little busier, but we’re not really sure what to put. We kept the same design, but he can add elements, like the pieces that fade in color or where my initials fade in orange. It was Scothern Custom Design’s vision and I really like it, and I think it’s also important that the painter has his own vision.
“There really isn’t a dream helmet for me. I think this helmet is really nice and if I wanted to improve it, I wouldn’t change much. Maybe just the green stripes, I don’t go with everything else, I like that it looks matching and it stands out a bit. I would probably change it to another color next time, but other than that, I wouldn’t change much.
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“I actually have another helmet coming (used at Silverstone), which is just white and gold. So it’s completely different and I don’t know what it looks like because usually you get a preview on computer.All headsets I have had for years because they have the same design we send the same design and just say the colors are this and that’s it.For this one is completely different and I don’t know what it’s going to look like.
“We bought two helmets last year because there was a special offer. This was my regular helmet and we went for something different with the other, I don’t know why – just a little experiment, I guess. It stands out and looks a bit like Kaylen Frederick’s helmet, but we tried to put our own spin on it. I guess I could make it a special helmet for my home race!