Whatever you race and wherever you race it, weight is usually the enemy. From carbon-fiber body panels to forged alloy rims and a minimized fuel load, racers are always looking for places to shed mass.
The same is true of your safety gear and, in particular, of your helmet. Safety ratings and cost are key considerations for race-helmet buyers, but weight should also be an important factor in the purchase decision. To discover why, we spoke with Preston Folkestad, USA brand manager for Stilo helmets.
“It comes down to neck fatigue,” Folkestad explains. “As you progress through your racing career and the cars get faster, the forces on the body increase. The need to lessen the amount of force, specifically on the neck, is why weight matters.”
Shop Stilo helmets here.
To take you back to high-school physics for a moment, you might remember the equation: weight = mass x gravity. Formula 1 (F1) cars pull at least 4gs when cornering. With that in mind, it’s easy to see how, under cornering loads, a helmet with a mass of a little over 2.5 pounds suddenly weighs more than 10 pounds, putting huge force on the driver’s neck. As a result, even reducing the mass by a couple of ounces adds up to a valuable weight saving.
As Folkestad says, “The idea of creating the lightest helmet possible is to reduce the lateral load on the neck itself and therefore reduce neck fatigue. In top-level racing, where less than tenths-of-seconds count, reduced head movement is key. Lightweight helmets provide a physical benefit that leads to a performance advantage, enabling the driver to perform at their peak.”
There’s also a benefit to the vehicle performance in reducing helmet weight. For Stilo-equipped F1 drivers Lance Stroll and Valtteri Bottas, every ounce matters. When they come to the table with the lightest helmet possible that still maintains the optimal safety performance, it enables the teams to save weight or deploy it more strategically, elsewhere in the car.
At the most extreme level, Stilo engineers have been able to provide F1 drivers with smaller-than-normal shell sizes for the VB- (Valtteri Bottas) series helmets, integrating the lightest, smallest shell-and-EPS-liner combination around a scan of the driver’s head.
At the other end of the motorsports ladder, a lightweight helmet is a priority for junior drivers whose neck muscles are still developing, especially in karting.
“Traditionally, karting helmets have been quite heavy, but in 2024 Stilo released the carbon-fiber ST5 CMR helmet, which is the lightest in the industry –2.29 pounds (1,040g) in XS and 2.46 pounds (1,120g) in small-shell sizes. It reduces both the amount of neck fatigue in a developing child’s neck and the amount of force that could be presented to a child’s neck in a crash.”
Stilo achieves its lightweight designs through extensive R&D efforts at its base in Bergamo, Italy. Naturally there is a relationship between weight, safety, design and cost. As the weight comes down, the science and engineering behind the materials used, and the volume of testing needed to validate the designs, increases. Research work encompasses different carbon manufacturing and layup techniques, composite materials, resins, and coating options.
In addition to the external impact protection offered by the helmet’s strong outer shell, the EPS foam inside is designed to crush under impact, slowing down the initial inertia being exerted on the driver’s skull and brain. “Often, we’ll take a helmet that’s been in an accident and dissect it,” Folkestad explains. “Understanding how our products behave in real-world scenarios is key for current and future product development.
“Safety testing includes everything from getting shot with a projectile, to being dropped at up to 124 mph (200 km/h),” he continues. “Creating a superlight helmet that retains the necessary safety performance and passes the industry-standard impact testing has an inherent cost on top of the materials themselves. In manufacturing we use prepreg carbon, for example, that must be stored in a cool chamber at -4°F (-20°C). Our skilled carbon techs then CNC-cut and manually lay up the carbon pieces to ensure the correct alignment and bonding. It’s not a process that can be done by a robot.”
Stilo’s attention to mass reduction includes the comfort liners that sit between the head and the helmet’s safety-critical EPS foam liner. Stilo researches and implements lightweight fabrics: adding to weight savings but also providing drivers with a comfortable feel and moisture-wicking performance.
To reduce additional weight on the outside of the shell, research has gone into reducing the volume of paint or clearcoat used in the final finish. “We don’t paint our lightest helmets,” Folkestad notes. “We’ve developed a one-of-a-kind process called “Puro Tech” for our carbon helmets, which enables us to take the carbon straight from the mold into cutting and assembly preparation, without putting any additional resins or fillers onto the helmet. That technology helps us to keep it as lightweight as possible from the factory.”
Not that all lightweight helmets are made of carbon fiber. Stilo’s latest ST6 composite helmet, which has a fiberglass shell, boasts a more-than-10% weight reduction from the ST5 models, putting it in the same weight category as other carbon helmets found in the industry.
“At the top level, Stilo’s goal is to create a complete solution for professional drivers,” says Folkestad. “Our products are ‘tools’ to enhance the driver system. A hobby racer may not need all the bells and whistles of a $6,300 Zero helmet. But many of its features trickle down into more affordable helmets for the general user, so drivers at all levels can benefit from our weight-saving technologies by selecting the lightest helmet in its class, or for a particular safety certification.”
The same applies to the Simpson brand. Stilo and Simpson are both owned by Holley and share many of the same technologies and engineering resources. “Many new Simpson helmets coming out in the next year benefit from these development resources,” he reveals. “It’s going to be exciting to bring new products to market that have both style and performance for our other helmet brands: they will look as cool as they always have but will be on the same technical level as higher-end designs.”
For more information on Stilo Helmets, go to https://www.stilohelmets.com/
