Iconic racing helmets to go on display at Wilton Legends

A remarkable collection of racing helmets worn by some of motor sport’s greatest names, and all wearing Mike Fairholme-designed liveries, will form part of this year’s Wilton Legends at Wilton House. The display will feature helmets associated with world champions, Le Mans winners and some of the most recognisable personalities in the sport.

Curated by Joe Twyman, the author of The Art of Racing: Helmets, the display will feature helmets used by Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill, Mika Häkkinen and Rubens Barrichello, alongside examples worn by David Coulthard, Juan Pablo Montoya, Heinz-Harald Frentzen and Jean Alesi. The collection also extends beyond Formula 1, with helmets from Le Mans winners and endurance racing stars including Andy Wallace, Allan McNish and Johnny Herbert.

For motorsport fans, racing helmets have long been just as iconic as the cars – with each livery becoming a real signature of each driver. Many of the designs represented in this display are instantly recognisable, from the colours associated with Mansell’s title-winning Williams years to the distinctive liveries carried by Prost and Häkkinen during some of Formula 1’s most fiercely contested seasons.

The display charts a period of enormous change in the sport, from the turbo era of the 1980s right through to screaming V10-era with Mark Webber’s Jaguar Racing 2003 helmet. In doing so, it brings together stories of world championships, Grand Prix victories and triumphs at Le Mans, all told through objects that were present in the cockpit during some of the sport’s defining moments.