I donāt know if it was meant to be seen but itās on maxs stream for all to see so Iām going to speak on it. Lando had a helmet on the ground the one Tom picked up and it was a version of the design from Spa 2020 without the controversial lions but with his grandparents on it that have since passed. Didnāt look like an F1 helmet though more like a karting or bike helmet and max mentioned it had paint on top. Iām wondering if he was trying to do something with it or if itās a very old test design maybe. Doesnāt stop me from imagining him trying to paint a helmet with his grandparents on it though š„¹ it looked like there was blue paint around an orange four. Idk random and he always has helmets on the floor but I hope he does a spa special helmet he can actually wear one day.
^ the clip anon is referring to!
The helmet itself seems to be just A Yellow Helmet, that Lando has painted a bunch of things on! There's that geometric design in the front and back in the style of what he had for pre-season testing in 2020, with the portrait of his grandparents at the back that was a part of his original Spa 2020 helmet! I don't recognize the top part right away, the red 4 on a blue background, but it looks vaguely familiar too hmmm
I wonder if that brown case the helmet is behind has paints in it? Could be anything really lol. But I think the helmet is just one that he's let his artsy side go wild on! (And hey, ofc Max would instantly just Know that)
I have the vaguest memory of once seeing a video/pic/post or something where Lando is painting on a helmet at home (so not a MCL video) or showing off a helmet he's painted or something... but I can't find it anywhere so... Lando lore archivalist @norriszn does this ring any bells or is my mind creating media that doesn't exist lmao
Here are his testing helmet from 2020 and the original Spa helmet from 2020! If someone doesn't know, the black lions on the helmet are from the Flag of Flanders, the flag of the Flemish community and region in Belgium where Lando's roots are from his mum's side! Unfortunately, especially at the time (idk how it is now...) the flag was also used by the Flemish nationalist far-right party Vlaams Belang.
His intention wasn't to put out a political statement of this sort and he was unaware of the connotations the flag has, he just wanted to honour his Flemish roots ("The helmet was never intended to be a political statement, for me personally it was simply a cool design that paid tribute to part of my heritage"). He switched to his normal helmet for the rest of the weekend after FP1!
