page_title: Racing helmet
section_title: Personalised designs
hierarchical_section_title: Racing helmet / Personalised designs
context_page_description: A racing helmet is a form of protective headgear worn by racing car and rally drivers. Motor racing has long been known to be an exceptionally risky sport: sudden deceleration forces on the head can easily occur if a racing car loses control at the very high speeds of competitive motor racing or the rough terrain experienced in rallying. A risk more nearly unique to motor racing is the possibility of drastically severe burns from fuel igniting when the fuel lines or fuel tank of the vehicle are jolted sufficiently to dislodge or breach them in a situation in which the driver cannot soon enough escape from his car. This happened to world champion driver Niki Lauda at the 1976 German Grand Prix race at the Nürburgring in a crash from which he barely escaped alive.
  It is known that the percentage of racing accidents resulting in hospitalisation in motor racing, at around 25 percent, is higher than any other major international sport and that the average period in hospital is the longest. A recent Australian study also suggests motor racing may have the highest rate of actual injury among major sports.
context_section_description: Many drivers – especially in open-topped cars such as Formula One cars – will have bright, vivid designs to help distinguish them from other drivers.  These designs will traditionally remain with the driver throughout their career, although in 2015 the FIA introduced rules limiting F1 drivers to one design per season to curb a recent trend towards regularly changing the design. This rule was removed from the FIA regulations for the 2020 Formula One season following criticism from F1 drivers and fans.
caption: Ayrton Senna's helmet
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