Tag Archives: F1

Le Mans ’95

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Mid-’90s endurance racing was – in this writer’s opinion – the peak of Le Mans cool. Purpose-built racers competed on equal terms wildly fast supercars, based on those that could actually be bought by the public (in some years they even had to have space for luggage in the regulations!). This created both spectacular on-track battles and some astonishing road cars, with this being one of them; the Le Mans winning 1995 McLaren F1 GTR.

Designed by Gordon Murray and powered by a BMW M-Power V12, the McLaren F1 was the fastest production car in the world, and remains the fastest naturally-aspirated production car to this day. Twenty-eight ‘GTR’-spec F1s were produced for racing, with the model winning not just Le Mans, but becoming the first non-domestic car to win the All-Japan Grand Touring Car Championship.

This is the Le Mans winning car, which beat rivals from Ferrari, Corvette, Honda, and Porsche, plus a range of purpose-built open-cockpit racers, and took third, fourth and fifth places too. It comes from previous bloggee 3D supercarBricks, who has captured the F1 GTR and its ’95 Le Mans livery beautifully in brick form.

Custom wheels and opening doors, front trunk and engine cover feature, and there’s much more to see at 3D’s photostream. Click the link above to travel as fast as it was possible to go in car in 1995.

What Might Have Been

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The story of the 2022 Formula 1 season is one of what might have been. After years in the doldrums, Scuderia Ferrari finally had the fastest car on the grid, and not only that, they had one of the most talented driver pairings too. Ferrari duly won two of the first three races, with fastest lap at all three, and with only one podium place dropped. And then – courtesy of some inexplicable tactical decisions – they threw it all away.

Now longstanding readers of this crumbling ruin in the corner of the internet will know that we aren’t Scuderia Ferrari’s biggest fans, what with them being immoral scumbags and everything, but if they stopped us having to see Christian Horner’s smug face every week we’d have taken it. However, unfortunately for Ferrari’s drivers – and us – some of the worst decision making in modern Formula 1 history gifted Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a second consecutive World Championship, and Horner’s smugness gained its own gravity.

Still, Ferrari’s 2022 F1 car looked rather lovely, and probably was the fastest car of the season, if only the team weren’t run by muppets, and it looks just as stunning in brick form courtesy of Noah_L, who has added the F1-75 to his amazing catalogue of Scuderia Ferrari racers.

Noah’s astonishing attention to detail is brought to life by some truly masterful building techniques, with superbly replicated decals and impeccable presentation making his Scuderia Ferrari F1-75 one of the most realistic real-world cars of the year so far.

A beautiful gallery of imagery is available to view on Flickr, where links to Noah’s previous Scuderia Ferrari racers and building instructions for the F1-75 pictured here can also be found. Build your own 2022 title challenger and reenact Ferrari’s strategic incompetence (not pitting under the safety car, pitting two cars at once, pitting for the wrong tyres…) via the link above. Just don’t be surprised if Christian Horner appears out of nowhere looking smug.

You Better Bolide It

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Revealed here at The Lego Car Blog as part of the new Technic line-up for 2023, the new 42151 Bugatti Bolide set is not a TLCB favourite, being an expensive officially-licensed version of a car we hadn’t heard of, with limited technical functionality.

But that hasn’t stopped previous bloggee M-Longer, who has used 42151’s 905 pieces to create something rather better.

M_Longer’s fantastic 42151 B-Model, which not only looks far more appealing than the set from which it has been built, appears completely unconstrained by the Bolide’s 905 pieces. In fact the only giveaway to the model’s origins are a few upside-down stickers.

Better yet, the Bolide’s black-and-yellow colour scheme works a treat on this alternate, creating a Formula 1 car reminiscent of those that wore the Renault-Sport livery in the late 2010s.

Working steering and a V6 engine turned by the rear wheels feature, and there’s more to see of M-Longer’s brilliant Bugatti Bolide B-Model at both Bricksafe and Eurobricks, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Speed Champions 2023 | Set Previews

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It’s the final part of our 2023 Set Previews, and today it’s perhaps LEGO’s most successful and well-regarded range of recent times; the fantastic officially licensed Speed Champions theme.

LEGO’s decision to bring real-world cars to bedroom floors everywhere at pocket money prices was an inspired one, and the list of partner manufacturers is now at eighteen strong. Yup, that means there’s a brand new manufacturer joining the line-up for 2023 – read on to find out who!

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76914 – Ferrari 812 Competizione

The 2023 Speed Champions range kicks off with this, the 76914 Ferrari 812 Competizione. For $25 / £20 you can own one the greatest Ferraris of recent times, constructed from 261 pieces including a mini-figure, a printed canopy, and a lot of stickers. Too many? Well to our eyes yes, but LEGO know what appeals to 9 year olds, and they’ll be on to a winner.

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76915 – Pagani Utopia

Yes the eighteenth manufacturer to join the Speed Champions line-up is Pagani! Maker of wild AMG-powered carbon-fibre hypercars, the Utopia is the brand’s latest, with an 850bhp 6 litre twin-turbo V12 and an ultra-exclusive 99-unit production run, although we suspect there will be a few more owners of the car in brick-form. Expect 249 pieces, lots of stickers, a slightly lazily-printed canopy, and a $35 / £20 price.

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76916 – Porsche 963

2023 will finally see the expansion of the prototype series at Le Mans, with a raft of manufacturers joining to challenge Toyota’s dominance. Two categories will race within the top-tier class; LMH (Toyota, Peugeot, Ferrari), in which full works-built prototypes can be built using entirely bespoke components, and LMDh (Cadillac, Acura, Alpine and Porsche), using spec chassis and hybrid systems. 76916 brings Porsche’s entry to the Speed Champions range, with 280 pieces, clever SNOT building techniques, and stickers on every surface.

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76918 – McLaren Solus GT & McLaren F1 LM

2023’s final Speed Champions set is a double, featuring two cars from the McLaren range. OK, one really, as the 25-unit, V10-Judd-engined, track-only Solus GT that we hadn’t heard of exists only in Gran Turismo at the moment. But let’s be honest, you wouldn’t be buying 76918 for that…

The reason we all want 76918 is for the fantastic McLaren F1 LM, which looks absolutely magnificent in orange bricks. It doesn’t even need many stickers. 581 pieces, two mini-figures, and some genuinely tricky building techniques feature, making it one of the best Speed Champions cars to date. And there’s a Solus GT or something too.

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That’s the brand new 2023 Speed Champions line-up; five new sets (including the previously-revealed 76917 ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’ Nissan Skyline GT-R R-34), one new manufacturer, and six-hundred new stickers. We’ll be taking the 76918 McLaren F1, and consider it an expensive single model set, but with a bonus pack of white and black parts thrown in for free. Couldn’t LEGO have made it with two F1s instead?…

Grand Prix ’64

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The year is 2064, and the Formula 1 has gone from strength to strength! The ’64 season features an amazing 42 races , 36 of which are in the United States, wherein the best drivers in the world (and Nicholas Latifi) battle to discover who the FIA’s Race Director will deem worthy of becoming World Champion!

Yuki Studona is hoping the fresh engines being fitted to his Octan Racing car in the final pitstop of the ’64 U.S. Grand Prix will give him the win, and he’ll be able to carry that momentum into next week’s ’64 U.S.A Grand Prix before the season wraps up in the Unites States in two weeks’ time.

Join the F1 fans at the ’64 U.S. Grand Prix and cheer on Yuki courtesy of lokiloki29 via the link above!

Insert Safety Car Here

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Mercedes-AMG’s seven-year dominance of the Formula 1 World Championship finally ended in 2021. Well, sort of… they still won the Constructor’s Championship, making it eight-in-a-row, but Lewis Hamilton did not win an eighth Driver’s Championship, and as such may now never move ahead of the record he shares with Schumacher.

Of course we also say ‘sort of’ thanks the controversial way in which Hamilton lost the Driver’s Championship on the final laps of the final race to Max Verstappen.

Thanks to crash-a-holic Lattifi (who – if he wasn’t paying to drive the car – surely wouldn’t be in Formula 1), and an improbable safety car decision that eventually cost race director Michael Masi his job, Verstappen was able to pass Hamilton on the final lap, giving us the first new World Champion in four seasons, and ending years of ‘#blessed’ instagram posts from the bejewelled multiple-champion.

Cue much arm waving and shouting from Mercedes-AMG (unusual, seeing as Christian Horner of Red Bull had done it all season for various imagined grievances), an investigation, but the race result standing. Which, by the way, we’re all for.

Yes the rules hadn’t been followed, but we’re of the opinion that even if there’s just one corner of the race remaining, it is a race, and therefore it should be, well… raced. Plus it made for amazing TV.

Anyway, Verstappen took the Championship, Hamilton felt what it’s like to lose (although he’s more than familiar with that this season), and fans got a finale to talk about for years to come.

This is the car that took Verstappen to his first Formula 1 Driver’s World Championship, the Honda-powered Red Bull RB16B, as created in spectacular detail by previous bloggee Noah_L of Flickr, and joining his already-impressive roster of brick-built modern Formula 1 cars.

The incredible realism is enhanced by some frankly jaw-dropping decals, created for Noah by a fellow builder, and there’s more to see of his astonishing (and beautifully presented) creation at his ‘Red Bull RB16B’ album on Flickr, where a link to building instructions can also be found.

Click the link above to deploy the safety car…

*It’s the Azerbaijan Grand Prix today. If you’re a Hamilton / Mercedes-AMG fan, this link from the 2018 race may raise a snicker.

LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1™ Race Car | Set Preview

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LEGO Technic 42141 McLaren Formula 1 Car

Here it is! After dropping a few hints when we revealed the rest of the 2022 Technic line-up earlier, this is the brand new 42141 Technic McLaren Formula 1 car.

Which is a surprisingly generic title, given Formula 1 cars usually have ludicrously long names to encompass their various marketing requirements. This is because 42141 isn’t (perhaps disappointingly) a 1:8 scale recreation of a single McLaren Formula 1 car, rather it’s a homage to recent McLaren Formula 1 cars in general, without actually being one in particular.

The reason for this odd approach is due to Formula 1’s regulations changing significantly for 2022, and McLaren haven’t yet revealed their new MCL36 car. Thus the 42141 set uses the new proportions expected, design cues from last year, and the colour scheme from the 2021 MCL35 (although this may well appear again in 2022) to create an approximation of a modern McLaren racer. Perhaps LEGO could’ve just waited a bit?

The sponsors are all present and correct though, with accurately recreated decals (‘splunk’ being our favourite) adorning many panels just like the real thing. Er, things. Several of the panels are new too, debuting on 42141 alongside the return of the Batmobile Tumbler wheels (which are wrongly the same front and rear, boo.), and the appearance of some new Technic frame pieces.

There are 1,432 pieces in all, contributing to a sizeable 65cm length, and – perhaps less so – to the ’18+’ age range on the box. Which we all know is just a marketing ploy.

With a working V6 engine, suspension, steering, and an oddly-locking differential (we’re not sure why an F1 car would have this?), 42141 contains nothing more advanced than you would expect to find on a 10+ Technic set, but with ’18+’ printed on a black box, LEGO can both sell this set to adults more easily and charge more for it; 42141 is due to cost around $180/£160.

Which to us seems rather a lot for a model that isn’t actually a McLaren Formula 1 car – despite also definitely being one – and which has more marketing than substance.

Then again, that might just make it the most realistic Formula 1 car you could ever wish for…

F1x2

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McLaren Automotive are continuing Britain’s long tradition of making cars that are excellent in almost every way, but which have the reliability Windows XP.

Back in the ’90s they outsourced this unreliability to BMW, but the results were still spectacular. The McLaren F1 was the fastest production car in the world, with a gold-lined engine bay and an amazing central driving position.

These two remarkably similar Speed Champions versions of the iconic ’90s supercar were independently found by two Elves today, sparking an inevitable Elf fight, and a dilemma for us in the office.

We’ve chosen to avoid conflict and publish both together, with the red car coming from Rolling Bricks, the grey one from Fabrice Larcheveque, and there’s more to see of each via the links.

Gives You Wings

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The 2021 Formula 1 season is about to begin, with the team reveals arriving thick and fast. TLCB – with our finger on the pulse as usual – are bringing you a car from 2011…

Of course what colour sponsorship the teams have this year won’t change the fact that they’ll be fighting for second place, and we’ll be watching Formula-1-driver-cum-irritating-eco-warrior Lewis Hamilton cruise to an 8th World Championship in the dominant Mercedes-AMG.

However it wasn’t always Mercedes-Benz who ruled Formula 1. In fact there have been several teams that have dominated the sport for a period, including Williams (remember that!), McLaren, Ferrari*, and – just before the current AMG-whitewash – Red Bull.

From 2010 to 2014 Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel won four consecutive World Championships, in part due to this car; the fabulous Adrian Newey designed ‘blown diffuser’ RB7, that used exhaust gasses to create downforce even when the engine was coasting. Not bad for a soft drinks company.

This brilliant recreation of the title-winning Red Bull RB7 comes from Noah_L of Flickr, who has not only built and photographed his RB7 absolutely beautifully, he’s endowed it with some of the most realistic (and complicated) decals we’ve ever seen on a Lego model, even down to the ‘Pirelli P Zero’ labels on the tyres.

It’s a wonderfully accurate build, with removable rear bodywork, a highly detailed engine, and spindly ‘suspension’, and there are loads more stunning images to see at Noah’s ‘Red Bull RB7’ album.

Click the link to head to a time before Mercedes-Benz domination, taking the knee, spectator-less venues, and Lewis Hamilton tweeting that we need to do more for the environment from inside his private jet.

*We know the link isn’t to a dominant early 2000s Ferrari, because surprisingly the Archives reveal we’ve never blogged a Scuderia Ferrari from the Schumacher-era. However we will take any opportunity to remind people that Ferrari are scumbags… Here’s the link again.

A Quick Cig

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The FIA is hardly a bastion of morality, but it has at least outlawed cigarette advertising on racing cars. Unless you’re Ferrari of course. Back in the ’90s though, promoting cancer was so acceptable that Williams not only had Camel cigarettes adorning its 1992 Adrian Newey-designed FW14B, they teamed it with alcohol sponsorship too.

We’re not sure the Camel or Labatt’s logos enhanced the FW14B’s speed in any way, but the money they brought sure helped, and Williams duly won the 1992 Championship – and made Nigel Mansell World Champion – with a then-record 9 race wins.

This brilliant small-scale replica of the title-winning Williams comes from TLCB Master MOCer Luca Rusconi (aka RoscoPC), who is better known for his hugely detailed large-scale Formula 1 recreations. Built using a fraction of the pieces but just as recognisable, Luca has turned his hand to historic racing cars on a much smaller scale, with the advantage of course that these are easier for others to build at home.

Suggested to us by a reader (and past bloggee themselves), Luca’s Williams FW14B is available to view on Rebrickable, where instructions can be purchased alongside those for a host of other famous classic F1 cars. Click here to see all the images and find downloadable building instructions to turn 169 pieces into William’s championship-winning cigarette advertisement.

Failari

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The 2020 Formula 1 World Championship has been weird. Months late, races cancelled, double-header races to make up for lost time, but no spectators, the season will probably be remembered more for Coronavirus than anything else. Well, that and Ferrari turning up in what seems to be an FSO Polonez.

Despite the 2020 SF1000 apparently being based on last year’s car and having one of most talented young drivers on the grid, Scuderia Ferrari have been awful. Currently sitting fifth in the standings behind a newly resurgent McLaren (who are finally exiting their own period of woe), and even Force India/Racing Point/Aston Martin/Stroll F1/whateverthey’recalledthisweek, with Leclerc in 7th place and multiple World Champion Vettel in 10th. Sheesh*.

The Scuderia Ferrari SF1000 at least looks rather nice, as demonstrated here by Noah_L’s superbly presented Model Team replica, itself an updated version of his recreation of Ferrari’s 2019 Formula 1 car. Give it a really hard push and might even beat the real thing.

There’s more to see of Noah’s excellent creation at his ‘Ferrari SF1000′ album – click the link to take a look, and then sit back and watch Mercedes-Benz AMG dominate the field as usual in today’s British Grand Prix, before they do the same at next week’s er… British Grand Prix. This double-header thing is going to take some getting used to…

*Still, maybe it’s karma for Ferrari’s active participation in the gradual killing of children.

Brick Dominance

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The 2019 Formula 1 season belonged to Mercedes-Benz. As did 2018. And 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014. This year of course, who knows, seeing as we should be approaching the mid-season break and the Championship is yet to start, thanks to the virusy dick that is COVID-19. It’s hard to see it being anything other than another Mercedes whitewash when it does start though.

Still, whilst they may seem like an all-powerful dominant force now, it’s worth remembering that the Mercedes-AMG F1 team came out of the defunct Honda F1 team that first became Brawn, who rose from the ashes to win the World Championship in their debut year (whoops, Honda), in part thanks to Mercedes giving them an engine to enable them to run.

This excellent Technic recreation of the title-winning 2019 Mercedes-AMG W10 comes from Mane of Eurobricks, who’s made instructions available too so you can have your own Championship-winning Formula 1 car at home! Mane’s 1:8 model features a working V6 engine, functioning steering and suspension, a removable front wing, engine cover and HANS device, plus an operational DRS on the rear wing.

There’s more of Mane’s Technic Mercedes-AMG W10 to see via the link above, including full build details, further images, and that all-important link to building instructions.

Espace F1

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Renault were on top of their game in the mid-’90s; winning the Formula 1 World Championship with Williams, the BTCC with their rather pretty new Laguna, and running a two-wheel-drive Megane in the WRC. Plus they had the Nicole and Papa Clio adverts…

In celebration of the above (well, mostly the F1 thing), they built this; the Renault Espace F1. Taking the second generation of the Espace that defined the European MPV segment, Renault’s partner Matra shoved their 800 horsepower 3.5 litre V10 Renault F1 engine into the middle, creating an MPV that could do nearly 200mph and an immediate icon.

This instantly recognisable Speed Champions recreation of one of Renault’s finest moments comes from dazzz99 of Flickr, who has captured the ’94 oddity superbly, and there’s more of his creation to see at the link above.

Buy Cigarettes!

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It’s time for one of TLCB’s infamous rants! We know you’ve been missing these…

Mission Winnow. “What?” we hear you ask. Exactly. We all asked that when the world’s most famous (read ‘expensive’) Formula 1 team revealed a car emblazoned with a brand that no-one had ever heard of at the start of the 2019 season.

But Ferrari being Ferrari – i.e. having the morals of a Mexican drug cartel – we knew it was worth digging into. If only to find out what the hell a ‘winnow’ is. What it is, according to the press release, is this;

“‘Winnow’ originally referred to the removal of chaff from grain, but it came to be used more broadly to describe the separating out of the unnecessary, the extraction of the good and distinguishing what is true from what is inaccurate or misleading.” Which is so gloriously ironic that we suspect Ferrari might be taking the piss. Because Mission Winnow is a front for selling cigarettes.

Of course Ferrari have long had an association with tobacco, being title-sponsored by Marlboro since the mid-’80s. However when Formula 1 banned tobacco advertising in 2006 after learning that cigarettes may in fact be bad for you, Marlboro’s owners had to find other methods of promoting their cancer-sticks on Ferrari’s racing cars. Cue the ugly barcode thing that appeared on the rear wing or the big white chevron that featured on the engine cover for a number of years, described by doctors as simply ‘subliminal advertising’ for Marlboro.

A public enquiry and probably a quiet word from Bernie Ecclestone saw the barcode dropped after a time, but that hasn’t stopped Marlboro’s owners Philip Morris International and Ferrari continuing to pursue their partnership marketing tobacco to children.

And thus we arrive at the 2019 Scuderia Ferrari SF90, carrying Philip Morris International’s latest “We’re not trying to sell cigarettes, honest” brand message. In fact the Mission Winnow mission statement is so vague and rambling it could have been tweeted by Donald Trump;

“Mission Winnow has a simple goal: drive change by constantly searching for better ways of doing things. And by committing to learning and knowing more, it’s easier to make choices that improve the future for everyone. To make this happen, we’ll get inside the minds of outstanding innovators and change-makers, to see why and how they achieve excellence.”

By ‘achieving excellence’, we can only assume they mean Selling More Cigarettes.

Oh yeah, we’re a Lego blog… this superb Technic recreation of Marlboro’s mobile advertising board is the work of Mane of Eurobricks, making their TLCB debut (sorry about the rant Mane!). Looking wonderfully accurate, Mane’s Scuderia Ferrari SF90 includes front and rear suspension, a working V6 engine, steering, and DRS on the rear wing, a removable engine cover and front wing, and brilliantly accurate ‘Mission Winnow’ (amongst other sponsors) decals.

There’s more to see of Mane’s wonderful creation on Eurobricks (where building instructions are also available), plus there’s an extensive image gallery at Bricksafe. Click the links to take a closer look, and then go on Scuderia Ferrari’s social media accounts and tell them to shove Mission Winnow up their arse.

The Other Jordan

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Following the rather bleak post earlier today, here’s one featuring an early 1990s racing car painted bright green and sponsored by fizzy-pop, ‘cos we like to be balanced.

It’s a Jordan 191 from 1991, probably the ’90s second most famous Jordan (we won’t link to other one, but if you’re British you’ll know…). The 191 was a moderately successful mid-field runner, powered by a Ford V8, and scoring a few points throughout the season (when points were much harder to get remember, only being awarded to the top six).

This neat Lego replica of the other ’90s Jordan comes from Luciano Delorenzo of Flickr, who has captured the real car complete with fizzy-pop paint-job very well indeed. Head to Luciano’s photostream via the link above to see al the photos, or start Googling if you don’t know the other Jordan to which we’re referring…