Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Lewis Hamilton reveals fresh helmet design for 2023 Formula 1 season

Mercedes driver Hamilton added his helmet would continue to display rainbow logos in support of the LGBTQ+ community

Kieran Jackson
Formula 1 Correspondent
Friday 17 February 2023 13:06 GMT
Comments
Lewis Hamilton ‘excited’ to unveil new Mercedes F1 car

Lewis Hamilton has revealed his helmet design for the 2023 F1 season will be combination of yellow and purple.

The seven-time world champion, who is entering his 11th season with Mercedes, is looking to bounce back this year after a disappointing 2022 when he did not win a single race, the first time he has gone a whole F1 season without a triumph.

That followed a thrilling 2021 title battle where Hamilton was denied a record eighth world title on the final lap of the final race in controversial circumstances in Abu Dhabi.

Lewis Hamilton has revealed his 2023 helmet design (Lewis Hamilton / Twitter)

Hamilton wore a purple helmet in 2021 before switching to a yellow design last year, the colour he sported as a junior and in his first years in F1.

And alongside photos of his new helmet on his Instagram page, Hamilton said of his 2023 colour-scheme: “Going with both yellow and purple this year.

“Love how they look together and how sick it looks against the black car. Keeping the rainbow accents too, always.”

Hamilton has previously displayed rainbows on his helmet and car during races in countries such as Qatar and Saudi Arabia in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

The 38-year-old insists he would not be silenced by the FIA’s new regulation banning drivers from making “political, religious of personal” statements without prior approval.

Speaking at Mercedes’ 2023 car launch on Wednesday - as they unveiled a return to a black livery - Hamilton said: “Nothing will stop me from speaking on the things that I am passionate about and the issues that there are.

“I feel the sport does have a responsibility to speak out on things and raise awareness on certain topics, particularly as we travel to all these places, so nothing changes for me.

“It would be silly to say that I would want to take penalty points for speaking out on things.

“But I am still going to be speaking my mind. We have this platform and there are still a lot of things that we need to tackle.

“The support of Stefano (Domenicali) has been amazing and all the drivers are very much aligned on freedom of speech.”

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in