Mansell and Dix the inspiration behind iconic new F1 clothing

F1 has teamed up with Puma to release its first ever collaborative brand clothing range, as the sport continues to build its ‘cool’ identity within a growing audience. Heavy on black with simplistic design, many garments boldly feature a very prominent modern F1 logo, but they were also developed to reflect some of the sport’s most iconic features.

“We looked at a lot of different material to try to give us inspiration and two key things came out of that,” explained creative director Stefano Favaro. “One of those was the chequered flag and the other was one of Nigel Mansell’s racing suits from his time at Williams – which I picked because he was one of my favourite drivers!

“All the race suits from the past were very similar. Back then the drivers were almost treated like a living mood board, and we wanted to integrate some of that. The chequered flag is another key element we translated, both in a subtle graphic but also in the cut lines in some of the garments, which come from the gesture and movement of waving the flag.”

Building on F1’s ‘cool’ identity

The designers were tasked with creating a new way for fans to connect with the sport, helping to build on the recent success in reaching out to new audiences. In most sports, teams are king when it comes to fan clothing, but Favaro believes the popularity that the sport is now establishing thanks to its current owners is changing the landscape.

“There is definitely a tendency of people to be part of a community and the way people are nowadays, they may be supporting a team but they also want to feel part of a tribe, as we call it,” he explains. “That might be the football tribe, the basketball tribe, or now the F1 tribe – so you do not necessarily need to be fan of a team.

“There is more and more this trend in young people to feel part of something and I think F1 can do that. You do not necessarily need to be a fan of Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull or whatever, you can be a fan of the sport itself. That is the intention of F1, they really want to bring this sport to the fans in a more spectacular way.

“When you look at Miami, Vegas, F1 was able to bring more people and there is definitely a level of excitement that was never before. Similar to UEFA or FIFA in football, where there is a lot of competition but also a sense of community, in the world of F1 the ‘family feeling’ is stronger, and the direction of delivering more…