For the early portion of his career, Lewis Hamilton exclusively used helmets supplied by Arai and painted by Jason Fowler of JLF Designs. Hamilton’s first designs throughout his karting and early days of Formula 1 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.

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, who’s victory in the race would earn him the first of his four consecutive Formula 1 Drivers’ Championships. The helmet would be retained by Hamilton after the race and was used once more by him during Formula 1’s preseason testing in Barcelona in February of 2011.

Gifted to Jason Fowler by Hamilton after the Barcelona test in 2011, the helmet remained in Fowler’s custodianship until 2024, when it was acquired by the present owner, a collector of Formula 1 memorabilia. It would be a remarkable addition to any collection, representative of the later years of his tenure racing for McLaren Mercedes.