Fernando ALONSO (ES)

After the 2014 Russian Grand Prix in Sochi (Oct 10-12) and prior to announcing his departure from Ferrari (on Nov 20), Fernando Alonso tried to collect signatures from everyone in the Ferrari garage to incorporate in the design of his final race-helmet with the team.

“I wear a helmet with a picture of a pit stop this year on one side, the Italian flag in the middle and the signatures of everybody in the team on the other side,” he explained.

“I just told them this morning that it’s the last time that I will jump in a Ferrari, so I want to bring all of them with me because they were a part of this fantastic experience and I want to do my last race with them on the track."

“To be honest, it’s a been a little bit of tricks because at Sochi, I took all the signatures from everybody but when I arrived here, we were missing 20 or 25 so now the helmet is not as perfect as it should be, because now we have all the 25 signatures everywhere but I’m happy and proud of them and happy to wear them on my helmet.”

Alonso wore the said helmet design from Nov 21-23 at the Yas Marina Circuit for the 2014 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. A series of six helmets were produced by JMD for the weekend. Alonso used shell #095 for the race itself (as documented in official photos) and used some of the other shells in testing, free-practice or qualifying sessions as well as marketing and promotional events. This is shell #091 showing (light) signs of wear and track-use.

The visor was hand-signed by Alonso, in silver marker. The 20+ additional wet signatures obtained from Ferrari pit crew engineers at the beginning of the race weekend are also clearly identifiable as live, in silver marker atop the clear coat and between the gold-toned, pre-obtained autographs printed by JMD.