Tag Archives: F1

Hero’s Ride

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Lego March 731 F1 David Purley

This is a 1970s March 731 Formula 1 car, built by previous bloggee Greg998, and it belonged to one of the greatest racing drivers in history.

David Purley was not a particularly successful racing driver, only racing in eleven Formula 1 races and scoring no points. He did win races and championships in lower formulas during his career before he left motor-racing to become an aerobatics pilot – a sport which tragically took his life when he was aged just 40.

However, it was his actions in the 1973 Dutch Grand Prix during his short stint in Formula 1 that make him one of the sport’s greatest figures. You can see more of Greg’s superb March 731 at the link above, and you can watch David Purley’s incredible bravery during one of Formula 1’s darkest and most shameful moments by clicking here (viewer caution advised).

Race Horse

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Lego Ferrari SF16-H F1 Car

What the hell is going on with Formula 1 right now? Oh yes, we remember; corrupt and greedy management are taking the sport apart bit by bit and then wondering why viewing figures are falling. At least Ferrari are finally back at the pointy end of the grid this year to bring some competition to Mercedes-Benz.

Lego Ferrari Formula 1 Car

This stunning recreation of Ferrari’s SF16-H 2016 title challenger comes from previous bloggee Noah_L, and the brilliance of the build is matched only by the beauty of the photography. There’s lots more to see at Noah’s photostream – click the link above to take a closer look, and if you’re wondering how to take images as good as Noah’s you can check out our guide to photographing Lego by clicking here.

Ferrari F1 Car 2016 Lego

Life’s a Beach

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Lego Ford F-Series Truck

And then you marry one. Or something like that. Anyway, this lovely first generation Ford F-Series pick-up truck is the work of Flickr’s Aliencat, and it comes complete with surfboard and deckchair! Hit the beach via the link above.

Lego Ford F1 Truck

Model Team Maserati

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Lego Maserati 250F Tipo

We’re starting to think that Formula 1 is becoming a bit, well… boring. You can thank Bernie Ecclestone’s enormous rulebook for the current state of affairs, but back in the ’50s the racing was gloriously exciting, due in most part to the fact that the rulebook could probably fit in a small pamphlet.

This exquisite 1957 Maserati 250F Tipo takes us back to a time when things actually happened on an F1 racetrack, when the Argentinian legend Juan Manuel Fangio overcame a 51 second deficit to win the German Grand Prix (and then the championship). Noah_L (aka Lego Builders) is the builder and there’s more to see of his beautifully photographed creation on both MOCpages and Flickr.

Ice Man

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Lego Ferrari F1 F2007

Kimi Raikkonen is one of the sport’s more… er, unusual characters, but there’s no doubting his racing talent. Back when Ferrari were the team to beat he took the F2007 to the World Championship, earning his sole title. Nathaniel L has rebuilt Kimi’s winning Ferrari and published it to Flickr with stunning photography. See all the beautiful photos via the link above.

Lego Ferrari Formula 1

Formula 3

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Lego F1 Kit

This neat idea comes from TLCB regular Angka Utama, who has designed a racing car set with interchangeable nose-cone, rear wing and side-pod bodywork.

Lego Racing Cars

There are three colours and styles to choose from (above) and these can be mixed and matched too (below). You can see more at either Flickr or MOCpages, where you will also find a link where you can vote for Angka’s idea to become an official LEGO set via the LEGO Ideas platform.

Lego Racing Car Kit

Drag Racing

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Lego Technic F1 Ferrari

Formula 1 might be constrained by four million regulations but it does still occasionally provide good racing. The surprise of the 2015 season has been Ferrari, who after a woeful 2014 seem to have mostly sorted their latest car. Don’t underestimate the role Vettel played in fixing the prancing horse though – as his previous team Red Bull seem to be going backwards (and doing so very ungracefully too). Coincidence?

Anyway, one of the more ridiculous of the four million regulations in Formula 1 these days is the DRS (Drag Reduction System). It’s a neat engineering solution that should be able to be used whenever the driver feels like it, not just when Bernie Ecclestone’s computer deems it to be OK.

TLCB regular Sariel has created a Ferrari-ish Formula 1 car that uses this feature the way we would like – his working DRS on the rear wing is deployed automatically in top gear. His fully RC model also features pushrod suspension, return-to-centre steering and a range of other Technic functions. You can see them all on MOCpages, plus a video of the car and its DRS in action.

Lego Ferrari Formula 1

The Power of Dreams

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Lego Technic Honda RA300 Formula 1 Grand Prix Car

The 2015 Formula 1 Championship kicked off in Australia last week, and with a long-absent name back on the grid. Or should we say back of the grid? Honda’s F1 return with McLaren has not been an easy one, and due to ever more ridiculous FIA rules restricting development, innovation, and fun, the once mighty engine supplier will probably be at the back for some time yet. But we like Honda here at TLCB, so we’re going to take a trip back to when they were allowed to do what they do best – innovate.

1967 Honda RA300 Formula 1 Lego Technic

This gorgeous 1967 Honda RA300 is the work of previous bloggee Nico71, and not only does his Technic recreation of one of Honda’s finest moments look completely beautiful, it works too. There’s Power Functions controlled steering and drive, functioning suspension, and of course, a replica of Honda’s masterpiece V12 engine which powered the car to victory in its first ever race.

There’s lots more to see of Nico’s RA300 Formula 1 car on the image sharing platform Brickshelf – click here to make the jump.

Lego Honda RA300 V12 Formula 1 Grand Prix Racer

 

And It’s Go Go Go!

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Lego Ferrari 2015 Formula 1

The 2015 Formula 1 championship kicks off in Melbourne Australia today! Will anyone challenge Mercedes? Will Maldonado get around Turn 1 without crashing into anyone? Will McLaren even finish? There’s only a few hours to go before we find out!

Oh, this lovely Ferrari SF15-T is the work of Nathanael L (aka Lego Builders) of MOCpages and Flickr. It’s gotta be better than last year’s car right?

Lego Ferrari SF15-T F1 Car

F1

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Lego Technic McLaren F1

The 2015 Formula 1 season kicks off this weekend (which should take the edge off the cancelation of BBC’s Top Gear*), and the big news is that Honda have decided to return to the sport after several years away. McLaren are looking to Honda to help revitalise their form (having won several world championships with them in the ’80s and ’90s), and Honda are looking for anything to make them interesting again, after spending quite some time being spectacularly boring in almost every way.

However, it was not Honda that powered McLaren’s most famous road car, but BMW, who supplied the 1995 F1 supercar with its monstrous V12 engine. MOCpages’ Paul vdB has recreated the product of that McLaren/BMW partnership with his beautiful Technic McLaren F1. His model features the huge aforementioned V12, plus a working gearbox, suspension, steering, butterfly doors, and a pneumatically operated air-brake/rear spoiler.

All of the McLaren’s details can be found on MOCpages, including digital renders of the design and close-ups of the chassis and pneumatic functions – click the link above to visit Paul’s MOCpage.

Lego Technic McLaren F1 Supercar

*Hopefully the return of Formula 1 will mean that the Elves’ Top Gear-related depression will disperse. We’re not really bothered about their happiness, but the news has affected their productivity somewhat. Luckily our readers have filled in the gaps; today’s creation being suggested to us via the Feedback page. You can read what we look for when blogging creations by visiting the Submission Guidelines here.

Quick March

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Lego March 751 Formula 1

Suggested to us via the feedback page by a reader (and previous bloggee) is Luca Rosconi‘s beautiful 1975 March 751 Formula 1 car, which won the Austrian Grand Prix in torrential rain that year. March were one of the most prolific racing car manufacturers of all time, building cars for dozens of race teams across a variety of racing formulas. Customer cars are now outlawed in Formula 1 so sadly you can’t just buy a car and enter a race. We think this is a bit of shame here at TLCB, so we’ll be imagining what it was like back in the ’70s via Luca’s Flickr page. Click the link above to join us.

Flat Twelve

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Lego Ferrari 312T4 1979 Formula 1

Carl Greatrix makes his second appearance in as many days here at TLCB with another unbelievable classic Formula 1 car. This time the prancing horse is Carl’s subject matter, and he’s recreated their gorgeous 1979 312T4 beautifully.

Underneath the perfect bodywork lives a chassis of jaw-dropping detail, including the famous flat 12 Ferrari engine, the last before Scuderia Ferrari finally got with the times and built a turbocharged unit to challenge Renault.

Lego Ferrari F1 chassis

Although the 312 was still a race winner in its ‘T4’ configuration in 1979, by the following year its outdated flat 12 engine relegated it to very un-Ferrari like positions. An entirely new car was conceived for 1981 which had half the cylinders, but it also had a turbo… and by 1982 Ferrari were the Formula 1 constructors champions again.

Lego 1979 Ferrari and Renault Formula 1

Carl’s Ferrari 312T4 is pictured here alongside his previously featured Renault RE20, and it’s one of our favourite photos of 2014. It also makes us wish that modern Formula 1 allowed some innovation and a variety of engineering approaches, as was the case until the modern era. We think it’d be much more exciting to watch cars as different as these two racing against one another. If only TLCB ran Formula 1…

To see more of this historic Ferrari – and Carl’s other incredible creations – take a trip to Flickr by clicking here.

Turbo!

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Lego Renault RE20 Turbo Formula 1

Formula 1 might finally have got with the times and moved to turbo-charged engines, but it’s not actually the first time forced-induction has been used in Formula 1 racing.

Turbo-charging first appeared in F1 as early as the 1970s (and forced induction in the form of super-charging featured in Grand Prix racing earlier even than Word War 2 – think about that when you next brag about your turbo!). This particular car was one of the best of that first Turbo Era; the astonishing Renault RE20.

Built by Carl Greatrix, this Model Team recreation of the late ’70s Renault is one of the most beautifully engineered Lego creations we’ve seen this year, and not just on the outside. Underneath the perfectly replicated bodywork sits one of the finest chassis and engines ever constructed from the humble brick. The extra photo below gives you an idea, but you really need to head over to Flickr to see just how good this creation is. You can visit Carl’s photostream here – it’s worth the click!

Lego Renault Turbo 1979 Formula 1

The Rain Man

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Lego Ayrton Senna McLaren

This summer marks twenty years since the passing of one of sport’s greatest men, the legendary Ayrton Senna.

Born to wealthy Brazilian landowners in 1960, Senna started racing go-karts in his native Brazil, before moving on to Formula 3 in the UK and then rising to become one of the greatest talents that the sporting world has ever seen, winning three Formula 1 World Championships in ’88, ’90 and ’91.

This McLaren-Honda MP4/6 was the car in which Senna won his last World Championship, after which he departed McLaren at the end of the 1993 season to drive for Williams.

Senna was tragically killed the next year, when his Williams FW16 left the track at Imola’s Tamburello corner, hitting the concrete wall at 145mph. Brazil lost its hero, and Formula 1 lost probably its greatest ever talent.

Senna’s McLaren MP4/6 pictured here is the work of the brilliant Nathanael L, and was suggested to us via the Feedback Page by a reader. Nathanael’s work has featured here numerous times, and you can see more of his McLaren as well as all of his other wonderful vehicles through his Flickr photostream at the link above.

Twenty years on from that awful weekend in 1994, in which Austrian driver Roland Ratzenberger also perished, Ayrton Senna’s legacy continues. Following the implementation of significant safety changes after the events at Imola, no driver has since died in a Formula 1 car, making Senna the last driver fatality in the sport.

It’s also been discovered that Senna secretly donated $millions to the children living in poverty in his native Brazil. He never told anyone, because that’s the kind of man he was.

 

F1 2014

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Lego Ferrari F1 2014

It’s nearly here! The 2014 Formula 1 season is almost upon us, and Nathanael L is getting is us ready with his excellent Model Team version of Ferrari’s 2014 title challenger.

Replicating the real Ferrari F14 T, Nathanael has included all of the new regulation-changed aspects of the 2014 cars;

First up is the new power-train, a 1.6 litre V6 turbo with an energy recovery system. Suddenly the Toyota Prius just got a little bit cooler eh? This we like, although we’d like it more still if Formula 1 allowed a free reign in engine capacity, induction and fuel type, much like Le Mans does. Note to Bernie Ecclestone: If you want to encourage more than three engine manufacturers into the sport you’ve got to give them freedom to work to their strengths.

Lego Ferarri F1 2014

Next, the exhaust must exit high and centrally, with the lower plain of the rear wing removed. This means no more ‘blown diffusers’, and a headache for Red Bull.

Lego 2014 F1

The last of the key changes to the regulations for this year sees the front wings narrow and the nose drop, with the aim of reducing downforce and also reducing the chances of a car riding over the top of another in an impact. This, we don’t like. Safety is a good thing, but if the result is the world’s ugliest race car (and there have been no injuries or deaths from an incident of the type aimed at being prevented for decades) perhaps there’s a better way to improve it. The Ferrari F14 T actually has a reasonably elegant solution compared to many of the other cars on the grid, but will it be quick?

Finally, there will be double points awarded in the last race of the season, because – as far as we can tell – Bernie Ecclestone has gone quite mad.

The action starts in Melbourne, Australia on the 14th of March. Will Sebastien Vettel continue his dominance? Will the new turbocharged engines blow up? Will Bernie be jailed for his fraud and corruption charges? Only one month to go!

You can see all the (brilliant) photos of Nathanael L’s Ferrari F14 T on both Flickr and MOCpages.