Race and classic pictures

Vettel's 2018 helmets: 21 variations on a theme

Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel clearly likes a little variety in his life, having used a different helmet design in every one of the 21 races of the 2018 world championship season.

Technically the rules and regulations require drivers to stick to the same basic design for the entire season. One-off exceptions are allowed for special events such as the driver's home race (or that of their team), or for the Monaco Grand Prix.

But Vettel knows how to push the envelope, and so he's managed to stick to the same general style while also introducing a little tweak to make each one unique. Here's an overview of all of Vettel's crash helmets for 2018, compiled by the Ferrari team.

Perhaps the one that most stands out is his lid for the United States Grand Prix, decked out in stars and stripes. As for the rest, it's fun to play 'spot the difference;' even when the changes are subtle and not quite to easy to pick out.

Hamilton reveals why he granted Vettel a very rare privilege

As for his race helmet from the season finale at Abu Dhabi, that's no longer in his collection. Vettel exchanged helmets with Lewis Hamilton after the race, in the way that soccer players trade shirts after a game.

"This is kind of an honorary thing that drivers do, this is the highest regard of respect that we can have as drivers," Hamilton said at the time. "This is like our jerseys. So here's one of mine, great job this year, and it's a real pleasure racing against you."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.