For the early portion of his career, Lewis Hamilton exclusively used helmets supplied by Arai. Hamilton’s first designs throughout his karting and early days of Formula One were inspired by his hero, the late Ayrton Senna, boasting a similar style to Senna’s with a yellow base with green and blue stripes. This design remained largely unchanged through his tenure with McLaren Mercedes through 2012, including for his first Drivers’ Championship season in 2008.

According to records provided by McLaren Racing Limited, this particular helmet was first worn by Hamilton during the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a weekend where he qualified and finished second behind Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull, whose victory in the race would earn him the first of his four consecutive Formula One Drivers’ Championships. It was worn by Hamilton throughout FP1, FP2, FP3, Q1, Q2, Q3, and the race itself. The helmet would be retained by Hamilton after the race and was used twice more by him during Formula One’s preseason tests in Jerez and Barcelona in February of 2011. It is presented today in the livery worn in these pre-season tests.

Gifted to Hamilton's long-time helmet designer after the Barcelona test in 2011, the helmet remained his custodianship until 2024, when it was acquired by the present owner, a collector of Formula One memorabilia. Hamilton helmets are rarely offerd publicly and this would be a remarkable addition to any collection, representative of the later years of Hamilton's tenure racing for McLaren Mercedes.