S’porean artist gifts custom wooden ‘helmets’ to F1 drivers, thanks them for entertaining fans

Singaporean artist makes custom wooden helmets for F1 drivers

Formula 1 drivers usually spend all weekend at press events giving their fans autographs or racing to entertain them.

To repay the drivers for the countless hours of joy they’ve brought fans, one Singaporean artist decided to make custom wooden helmets as a gift.

In an Instagram post on 9 Oct, local artist tobyato shared how he managed to make six wooden helmets for six special drivers in a matter of days.

Giving back to the drivers

The 32-year-old visual artist said the project was motivated by a desire to give something back to the F1 drivers for all they give to their fans.

“I designed each helmet with a motif or icon of something that each of them likes outside the track,” he said.

To do so, the artist did substantial research.

He told MS News that he pored over past interviews, scoured their social media, and even talked to friends who were fans of the drivers.

For Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, tobyato etched piano keys.

For Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, he etched a Brazilian dish and watches, respectively.

He also made helmets for the Mercedes drivers. For Kimi Antonelli, pasta and the whale necklace he loves. For George Russell, free diving.

Finally, for Yuki Tsunoda, he etched ramen onto the wooden helmet for the future ramen shop the Japanese driver plans on opening.

The clip shows the instant when each driver received their gift, with all of them expressing a moment of joy in their very hectic schedule.

“They are so used to giving autographs to fans, so when I said the gift was for them, there was a little ‘switch’ for some of them,” he added.

A time crunching project

Speaking to MS News, the Singaporean said he started the project at the last minute.

“I decided to work on it quite last minute going into the SG GP week, so it was quite literally a race (pun intended) to complete,” he said.

Tobyato shared that designing the helmets “took about two days including a sleepless night”.

Meanwhile, the production of the pieces took about a full day.

The artist said he barely made it in time for the meet-and-greet sessions.

The final result? Six special wooden ‘helmets’ for six drivers — each unique in its design.

Tobyato told MS News that these helmets even come together to form a rotating animation.

Meeting the six drivers

As if the time crunch stress wasn’t enough, tobyato had to fight the nerves ahead of meeting the drivers.

“It was a whole new battle of nerves and anxiety to do my best to meet the drivers,” he explained.

Even so, the artist felt like his greatest challenge remained making a gift that resonated.

“I think on a personal level, my biggest challenge was how to design each helmet equally and properly meaningful for each driver,” he said.

I knew I didn’t want to make something surface level.

The Singaporean said this project would not have been possible without all the help he received.

“I would just like to say a big thank you to everyone that helped make this happen,” he said.

“From the brands like Rayban, Sneaksurf, Redbull, with various agencies that were kind enough to invite me to their events, to my fabrication friends at GPG, and to everyone around me that were pushing me to stand further in front when they knew about my project.”

Also read: Charles Leclerc to make special appearance at Ray-Ban pop-up in Clarke Quay on 7 Oct

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Featured image courtesy of @tobyato on Instagram.