[Nie]zwykła czapka Pirelli – wywiad z artystą Saiffem Vasarhelyi'em - [Not] Just an Ordinary Pirelli Cap - Interview with artist Saiff Vasarhelyi

This year's Formula 1 sprints are unique not only because they now have a dedicated qualifying session on Saturday mornings but also due to an aspect beyond the sport. The driver who secures the first pole position for the sprint race receives a unique and exceptional Pirelli cap, which – apart from the production itself – is the result of several hours of work on a special project. Roksana Ćwik talked to the creator of these special caps, Saiff Vasarhelyi, ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix.

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It's a pleasure that I can speak with you. What was the first time someone from Pirelli called you and asked if you could make some caps for the driver winning pole for a sprint race?
That's a good question. I think officially from Pirelli it was this year, like maybe March, April, something like that. So we decided to make the special caps for the pole position winner of the sprint race. And we wanted to make something unique, so I did many different designs. I always keep the colours of the flag of the country and I do it using my techniques. What we do for the pole position winner, we make some rubber, vegan rubber, made in Switzerland with innovation, all the certifications, skin-free, and we have the ability to print any kind of surface on the rubber. So that means the rubber can be all carbon, all carbon fibre, raw, tire, texture, component. We write the [symbol] first, we print it, we cut it, and we put it on the caps. Like for example, the race winner cap, they have the flag, Budapest, and the symbol for first place. We do this also from our side for the pole position sprint race, the winner.

Is it always a unique cap? As I understand, this will be the second sprint with it, but is it always unique?
Yes. It's a cap that's specially made for the pole winner. But we are planning to release a very limited quantity of 1.000 baseball caps. The collection will be hand-painted by me in my atelier in Switzerland. I will sign each cap, and they will be available from Pirelli's authorised merchandising dealers.

How much time do you spend on making the single cap?
I think it's not a matter of hours to make the product itself. It's about how long it takes to have the technique. Because many famous painters say it's not about how much time you take to paint something. It's about how long you acquire the technique, and you can do it better every day more. So I don't know. I would say maybe for one cap, including the rubber, the collage and everything, perhaps three hours with the cuttings and everything.

You use many techniques. Is it difficult to accomplish everything in one go?
No, because it's all steps. For example, you have the dripping technique, where I throw my painting drops on the caps. And then after this, we have the other step of doing the rubber and putting the collage on the caps. And at the end, the last step is signing the cap.

Let's talk about you, not just about the caps. Which techniques are you using? Which projects are you involved in? Something about you because not many people know you. They can see the caps and ask what he was up to other than Pirelli and F1.
I'm working now with a luxury brand on a project. I cannot disclose it because I am under an NDA, but it's my biggest project yet, and it's going to be released this year. So I'm not only doing F1, but I'm also doing paintings. Many people ask me, can you do a portrait of this person or this person? But I always choose the design and the way to do it. So basically, nobody can tell me, oh, I want you to draw this Dragon Ball Z with these colours or this. I don't do it.

Saif Vasarhelyi © Vazabase

Beginning to the end, everything is your product.
Everything is my imagination, is my product. People are happy with that because I also have people who come and say, can you do this cap? And you can choose the colours. And then they are happy, you know. So this is the way I do it. I use the spray cans, basically spray paintings, Montana graffiti spray paintings. And that's it for the caps. That's all what I use. But I have some people who try to do the same, basically to people. For example, in Mexico last year, I had a few artists who were doing the queue to have a cap from me and told me, oh, I'm an artist, I do graffiti as well. Can we do it together? And I said, yeah, of course, come. They try, and they realize it's not that easy to do it, even if you can do graffiti. So it's a very complicated technique. It's all about speed, quantity of the paint and the movement.

Some people may think that graffiti is easy because you just take the paint and make a graffiti, but it's not that easy.
But I don't do graffiti. I cannot really describe my art as between pop art, street art and abstract. So it's a combination of all because I'm not a drawer. I use my imagination to draw, but I'm not a perfect drawer with the details and everything. This is not what I do.

We are looking wide. You are not closing the cage by doing this, this, and this.
Exactly. I do wide open. And mostly what I love to paint is small items. The smaller, the more I like it.

For example?
I like to paint sunglasses. I like to paint bracelets.

So tiny pieces.
Yeah, I like that. But when I do small pieces, I also use the airbrush. You know, the airbrush? So I use the airbrush and I mix all kinds of techniques together. Between airbrush, spray cans. I love to mix. I'm like a crazy cooker. I take all the ingredients and I create something.

Saif Vasarhelyi © Vazabase

But you make something exceptional and great.
Exactly. Fancy, special, unique. And this is why people love my products. Because every single product I do is unique. And even if somebody tells me, I give you 1 million euro, you do the same. It's not possible. I cannot do the same. So even if you have the same colour as your friend on your cap, on a Pirelli cap, for example, it's not possible. It will be two different caps.

We know that Formula 1 will be more eco, carbon-free. Also, your caps are more eco-friendly and less carbon-intensive. Is it difficult to make something that is natural in times when we have a lot of plastic and many other things that are very dangerous for people and the planet?
I think it's not about difficulty, it's about doing it in the right way. So, for example, our rubber that we put on the Pirelli Sprint cap is vegan-free and skin-free. And this is all certified, it's official, and it's made in Switzerland. Of course, you can buy rubber in other countries, and they say it's vegan and everything, but you are never certain. But our product is rubber, for example, it's 100% safe, ecological. The spray paint is a little bit different because from my knowing, the paintings that I use, there is no kind of paint that is vegan or ecological. Honestly, I don't know how they make, they create these paintings, but I cannot tell you more about it. I use my spray cans, I know, of course, it goes in the air, but I try to avoid that the particles going next to the people. I always try to be a little bit far from the people. I know exactly how to manage this.

Have you ever thought about making a cap in real time? For example, you are sitting here and watching the qualifying session for the sprint race and either Charles Leclerc or Lewis Hamilton won pole. And then you do a cap with a theme related to them.
I mean, it would be a nice idea to make it in real life. For example, in Baku it was Charles Leclerc, but in Baku, we did Baku colours and in Austria, it was Austrian flag colours. I think, yes, it's a nice idea to make it especially for the driver, but I think to represent the country is even more beautiful because if you have, for example, I don't know, let's say in a race like Italy, for example, and you have Charles winning the pole position award with the cap, and you have the Italian flag, it's much more beautiful. It's more beautiful to imagine Charles wearing a Pirelli cap with the Italian flag colours than the Monaco colours. Even if I like Monaco as well, and I respect Charles as a Monégasque, but having the Italian colours on the Italian Grand Prix, even if Max won it, it's for the fans, it's for the people, the Italian people. Of course, this can be in every race. So I think to put the country and the fans that are coming from the country in front is a kind of gratitude and respect as well for the place where they are racing.

When you saw your cap given to the driver, what was your feeling? What was the first reaction?
The first one is you feel the hype, you are happy. I'm into Formula 1 since 1997. I was a fan of Jacques Villeneuve before, then Fernando Alonso, still now I love Fernando Alonso. So the first feeling is like, wow, it's a kind of... But you know, when you work hard, and you believe in what you are doing, at a certain point, it's not the same feeling as if you were not working hard. If you don't work hard and something like that happens, you have the feeling, wow, it's crazy, you are in euphoria. But when you know you worked hard, you spent so much time, and you see it for the first time... You say, okay, this is the fruit of my work. It's not the same euphoria. It's more a kind of you are proud of what you did. You know what I mean?

Yeah, you feel everything positive at the same time.
Yes, but you know why it's happening. That's the most important for me, that you understand why it's happening because you know you worked hard. And this is also what I want to show the followers, the people, the younger generation, you have to work hard, believe in yourself and never surrender, always pushing, always pushing. Even if you get, you know, I got so many bad takes in my life as well or people that rejected me before. Everything can happen to you. People who stole your idea, stole your project. Everything happened to me as well, but I'm still here rebounding, and you go more forward. And this is for me the step to improve as a person and as an artist and as any kind of people, even a worker or anything. You have to go through these steps to be a better person.

And never give the satisfaction to your enemies.
Yes, exactly, exactly. So, I mean, yeah, that's my nature. But the euphoria, of course, is always there, but at a certain level, yeah.

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure. Thank you for your time.
You're welcome. Thank you.