The in-demand helmet designer creating works of art for F1's best

Mick Schumacher’s helmet for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix is taken to the furnace. Having just had a double layer of clear coat applied, it will dry faster in there – as the driver needs to receive it in just a week’s time, and Mick is just one of four F1 drivers having custom helmets for the Florida race prepared right here, at the office of German designer Jens Munser.

“When I was still painting helmets in the cellar at my parents’ house, I dried them during the nights in the oven in the kitchen,” Jens laughs as he reminisces on the time he crafted helmets for himself and his first clients in motocross. “The next day my mother would bake cakes inside the same oven. So I am happy my parents are still alive and have no health problems! Because back then the clear coat was full of solvent, and the whole kitchen would smell like hell. Nowadays solvents are much better, but 20 or 30 years ago it was just terrible.”