This time, Lego really surpassed itself. Three years after this F1 McLaren Lifestue, magnificent but desperately static, the giant of the plastic bricks and enemy n ° 1 of foot plants built ten F1 completely functional for the Grand Prix of Miami 2025.
Of course, there is no question of organizing a real race with (although Sauber might have preferred?). The idea was to innovate a little for the pilot parade at the start of the weekend.
You will tell us that with 10 cars for 20 pilots, half of these had to go around the circuit on foot. Except that not: these LEGO F1 may be more or less on a 1: 1 scale, they are two -sided.
“In fact, we had to start developing the cockpit first since he had to accommodate two people,” Senior designer for this project told Top Gear Jonathan. Because it will not have escaped you that the F1 of the LEGO set takes on a small figurine … which does not have the anatomy of a real person. »»
“Finding room for two was therefore a real challenge. We have made people of different sizes on board to try to take bearings. »»
The designs are directly based on (very small) F1 of the Speed Champions collection, and if the stables therefore did not have to share 3D complexes to realistically reproduce their single-seaters, they all validated their LEGO version.
Each car is made up of almost 400,000 bricks and weighs some 1,500 kg, with no less than 26 specialists to draw them, design and manufacture them. A team of specialized manufacturers worked by rolling to finalize each F1.
A total of 22,000 hours of work. Or, if only one person had taken care of it by working without pee break or any night of sleep, the equivalent of two and a half years of uninterrupted work. Anyway.
But the most beautiful in there is that there is not the slightest brick on these cars that you could not find in the trade, which means that you could theoretically do all this yourself. Provided you have time. And probably a lot of money. And a large living room.
Ah yes, the engines. No hybrid turbo V6 here but a small electric motor developing 11 hp, almost the same power as the Honda engine of the Alonso-McLaren era. The engine, the monorapport transmission and the differential are in a single block. The brakes are borrowed from a racing car, but Lego does not mean which one.
The top speed does not exceed 20 km/h and the battery is provided to cover the distance from a parade tour with a little margin, just in case. Suffice to say that forces g In turn are not quite the same as in truth.
“If we had an unlimited budget and time, we could really approach the real F1, if we wanted it,” insists Jurion, adding that his team had to produce the 10 cars in just eight months, when it was necessary until a year for a single car. “We are therefore trying to favor simplicity and focus on reliability and ease of driving. Surely the best thing to do.
This did not prevent LEGO from sending drivers a manner upstream. If only for what they understand that we had to go up in tandem like Renault Twizy, not one behind the wheel and the other in the Amazon on the pontoon like Mansell and Senna …
After the parade of this weekend in Florida, the cars will go on tour (rather than in the attic to disappear forever). “They will be dispersed around the world and, with a little luck, will inspire children – and adults – to join LEGO and Formula 1,” said Jurion. You never know, if the 2026 regulations are the fiasco announced by some, the F1 may be tempted to order ten others …
