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.”
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.”
