Generally, however, the drivers did not make much of an effort to be recognizable in the cars; perhaps it was not so egotistical a sport in those days. In the sixties, more distinctive colors and schemes began to emerge, Stewart's tartan band making him instantly identifiable.

The personalization of helmets continued apace through the seventies and eighties and were a boon to sports commentators trying to keep pace with the race, especially after the car numbers were reduced to near invisibility. And then advertising came along to spoil the party.

Some helmets became so festooned with ads that it was impossible to see the complex design underneath. This has caused the present trend towards simple designs again and the task of identification becomes a lot easier as a result. Only last year, there were driver combinations that gave very little clue through helmet colors as to which driver you were watching. Speed looked very like Liuzzi (from one side, at least), Barrichello's and Button's red, white and blue could cause confusion, Sato and Davidson often suffered from the same problem.

2008 has seen a re-shuffle of drivers that has eased identification; the yellows of Massa, Hamilton and Rosberg are easy, as long as they stay in separate teams, ditto for the red and black of Raikkonen, Kovalainen and Alonso, Nakajima's red makes his Williams a cinch. We had better hope that Heidfeld and Vettel never wind up in the same team, however.

F1 Wolf has posted an excellent guide to the helmets that should help us all in staying ahead of the TV commentators this season. Have a look at it here - you might find a few that you weren't aware of yet. Piquet and Glock are included amongst the test drivers and Bourdais (that's his helmet in the picture above) hasn't made it yet, but I'm sure the Wolf will get around to an update soon. It must have taken a fair bit of work to track down some of the lesser know designs so I want to thank the Wolf for his efforts. Good on yer, mate!