Charles Leclerc’s helmet fetches record price at auction

The helmet Charles Leclerc wore at the Monaco Grand Prix last month has sold for a colossal £262,700, with auctioneers RM Sotheby’s claiming the figure is a world record price for a racing helmet.

It’s almost twice as expensive as the €162k paid for Ayrton Senna’s 1990 F1 season lid back in 2019, which had extended the benchmark from another Senna helmet back in 2012.

Leclerc’s race suit, gloves and boots have also been sold off, fetching £52,500, £17,500 and £36,100 apiece, bringing the total to just shy of £370k. That’s an expensive outfit right there.

The ensemble is at least a one-off design: Leclerc had the helmet designed to commemorate his home race, with all his other garments tweaked to reflect the national colours.

The numbers involved may be obscene, but that’s a good thing as it’s all in aid of a worthy cause: the money raised will go to victims of recent flooding in Italy, which caused (among many, many far worse things) the Emilia Romagna GP at Imola to be cancelled.

After the race was called off Ferrari and F1 each pledged €1 million to help the region recover, while food intended to be served in hospitality was distributed to local food banks.