(Motorsport-Total.com) – The helmet that Gilles Villeneuve wore in his very last Formula 1 race was auctioned for the record sum of 1.25 million US dollars – equivalent to just over one million euros. This was confirmed by Darren Jack, CEO of the Canadian company “Hall of Fame Collection,” which handled the sale.
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The sum represents a new world record for a racing helmet. The previous record was held by a helmet of Ayrton Senna from the 1992 Belgian Grand Prix. It was auctioned last year for 720,000 British pounds, which corresponds to around 829,000 euros.
Villeneuve’s helmet was in a private collection for almost 30 years. The Canadian Ferrari driver wore it at the 1982 San Marino Grand Prix in Imola. There he finished second after his Ferrari teammate Didier Pironi overtook him in the final phase of the race – despite a clear team order to slow down.
Two weeks later, Villeneuve died at the age of 32 in a fatal accident during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix. However, he was wearing a different helmet in this tragic accident.
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“The GPA helmet model itself is already extremely rare in the collector’s world,” Jack explained to the Canadian broadcaster CBC directly from Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. “Moreover, this is one of only five – maybe even fewer – existing racing helmets that Gilles Villeneuve actually wore.”
The design of the helmet is predominantly red, with black stripes on both sides. On the back is a stylized red “V”.
The most expensive racing helmets of all time:
– Gilles Villeneuve (1982): 1.25 million dollars
– Ayrton Senna (1992): 966,000 dollars
– Lewis Hamilton (2023): 387,000 dollars
– Steve McQueen (1970): 375,000 dollars
– Charles Leclerc (2023): 335,000 dollars
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