Behind
the
scenes

We extended our legacy of special edition race suits. In collaboration with the Red Bull Racing Honda, PUMA dressed the drivers at the F1 race last weekend in Turkey for the very first time in white, paying homage to teams’ race-winning alliance with power unit supplier Honda. And the new special edition race suits brought good luck –  it was the second double-podium finish of 2021 for PUMA team Red Bull, with Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez shining through the Turkish Grand Prix. Take a look behind the scenes and learn how the race suit has been created.

THE MAKING OF

In this Behind The Scenes feature, explore how the race suits are conceived, designed and produced.

The history of PUMA special edition race suits together with the team of Red Bull Racing Honda is already rich. It all started with the “Lederhosen” special race suit in Austria (2016), continued with the cowboy suits in Austin (2018) and the tuxedo design in Silverstone celebrating James Bond (2019).

“We are not afraid of doing something a bit different. Special Edition Race Suits are something we have done in the team historically, but we haven’t done it in a while now”, says Team Principal and CEO of Red Bull Racing Honda Christian Horner.

The eye-catching white design of the latest PUMA special edition race suit is to celebrate the teams’ race-winning alliance with power-unit supplier Honda before they leave the stage of Formula One at the end of the season.

DESIGN LANGUAGE

“As we started to design the race suit, we tend to go a little bit old school. The white suit comes about as a thank you to our friends at Honda. We wanted to take some of their heritage with their white uniforms and liveries back in the 50s, 60s and bring it into current day with us,” explains Greg Auchterlonie (Head of Brand Design, Red Bull Racing Honda). “I took the inspiration from Max Verstappen visiting the Honda factory in 2019. He was walking in his Red Bull Racing Honda race suit next to Takuma Sato in his white race suit which is relying a lot on the red of the Honda logo. So I tried to merge both designs and bring it into our 2021 race suit.”

When the design process is finished the production comes to play. PUMA´s race gear factory is sitting in Turin (ITA), supplying race teams worldwide. Since 2016 PUMA has been customizing the race gear of Red Bull Racing Honda drivers. “The process to make a race suit starts with the design we get from the teams. We immediately  check the feasibility of the fabrics and patterns and then we go into the process of allocating all the logos, all the different shapes and stripes of the suits, and then we forward all the information to the supplier who starts to produce the suit,” acknowledges Maurizio Sicco (Teamhead Motorsport Racewear, PUMA). “The process we follow to make the special edition suit is exactly the same as the other suits. What is changing is the color of the material, the shape of the CAD lines and the position of the logos. But in terms of technical specification of all the materials, they are exactly the same as every suit of every GP.”

SAFETY & PERFORMANCE

The safety as well as the performance of the race suits is what counts the most in the end to protect the drivers from fire, as well as fitting them perfectly to perform their very best. “10 – 12 years ago one suit could easily be 1.5 kg of weight. The goal was and is to make the suits as light as possible. For example, we are not embroidering the logos anymore because it is heavy, so we are printing the logos.”