MXGP Rider Insight: Romain Febvre

IDC: What was the inspiration behind your new design?

RF: There are many things that inspired this helmet! Firstly I didn't want too much green as the old designs and this year we're going to change gear colours a few times, so I wanted something that matches everything. So mainly black, of course with the Monster logos and then I find the gold matches really good with the black. But obviously, the gold is close to the championship colour, so you made it really thin and really nice so you can see it but not too much. On the top you can see the number 3 because that's my number and I wanted something cool like that. It's nothing too flashy but when you're close to the helmet you can see it. I think it's the best design I ever had, so it's really cool!

IDC: What is your favourite historic helmet?

RF: Back in the day when I was really young, I was inspired by Michel Pichon who's a French rider that was World Champion and he had a Shark helmet, with a kind of snake on the back. I was looking to that rider like my idol and I remember as I young kid riding in his shirt and that's why I remember his helmet. He was on Suzuki at that time, so the helmet was grey and yellow and he had a snake on the back which I found really cool.

IDC: What would be your dream helmet design?

RF: The best helmet design I want would be one of a World Champion! When you are World Champion you can have whatever you want, so more gold I think would be cool!

IDC: Which other riders designs do you like?

RF: I really like my designs, but we are all looking at other riders to see what they have and to see some different things. There's no helmet that really comes to mind, but I think it's cool to change and change design, not to keep things the same because it's like the gear and you don't want to look the same all year. I think it's the same with helmets, when you change a few times each year people are looking at you more and that's the main thing. Then for the Nations, everyone has different racing gear and helmets which makes it really cool and normally it goes with the country colours. In France we always had a nice design with some animals because they are famous in France and this always makes it really cool at the end.

IDC: What do you do with your old helmets?

RF: I think I'm lucky to have many helmets a year, so I can keep one of each design which end up mainly in my garage and I hang them on the wall. I like to keep one from the best design of the year and also my helmet from the Motocross des Nations as well. Also with the extra helmets, I can give them to a mechanic or the team and even a sponsor, as I like to make that a gift as they're always special helmets but I always keep one!