Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFerrari

Vettel willing to risk helmet changes

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Sebastian Vettel says he would be willing to defy a ban on changing helmet designs if the punishment benefitted charity.

The FIA is keen for drivers to be more easily identifiable by their helmets, and as a result is set to bring in a regulation that will ban drivers from being able to use more than one helmet design per season.

Vettel was known for often changing the design of his helmet when a Red Bull driver, using multiple designs throughout each season. With the ban having been announced ahead of the second pre-season test, Vettel was asked about his reaction to the news and said he might still be willing to use different designs if the punishment isn’t too severe.

“Anyway the plan was to calm down a little bit,” Vettel said. “I don’t know, it seems that in these difficult times it’s the only thing people can agree on. I don’t know what the penalty is but if it’s a little fine with money for charity I’m happy to keep changing my helmet.”

Vettel has been running a predominantly white helmet design featuring the colours of the German flag throughout pre-season testing since his switch to Ferrari.

Click here for the gallery from day four of the second test

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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.