What’s inside a Formula 1 Helmet?

It’s no secret that we find and odd satisfaction in videos of things being destroyed. This video, however, gave me a drastically different reaction from the usual destruction footage.

Instead, watching the guys from What’s Inside? YouTube channel take a sledgehammer to a beautiful carbon fiber helmet over and over again is hard to watch, though the amount of effort it takes before the helmet shows any visible damage is definitely admirable. Eventually, after several solid blows from the hammer, the helmet relents and our YouTuber is able to break through the tough outer shell.

The helmet, which is designed to protect the exposed head and face of Formula 1’s drivers, showed incredible resilience in this not-so-scientific test. Any time a driver is involved in a crash, he is required to replace his helmet with a brand new one and the used one is sent in to testing, where the manufacturers examine it carefully and use any information learned to further refine and improve their design.