Tag Archives: Formula 1

Winning Horse

Leave a reply

Modern Formula 1 cars last just one season. But back in the 1970s Scuderia Ferrari created a car that lasted for six. And it won four of them, making it the most successful design in Formula 1 history.

First competing in 1975, the Ferrari 312T featured a tubular steel spaceframe, a transverse 3 litre flat-12 making around 500bhp, and excellent reliability. The version we have here today is the T4 variant, featuring aerodynamic modifications to take the Constructor’s World Championship back from Lotus, whose ‘ground effect’ design ended the 312T’s winning streak in 1978.

It worked too, returning the Constructor’s title to Ferrari and giving Jody Scheckter the Driver’s Championship. This fabulous recreation of the 312 T4 comes from Andre Pinto of Flickr, and captures Scheckter‘s title-winning car in spectacular detail.

Custom chromed pieces, authentic replica decals, and stunning internals make Andre’s Ferrari 312T one of the finest vintage Formula 1 cars we’ve published yet, and you can find all the images at his ‘Ferrari 312 T4’ album via the link above.

Marlboro Men

Leave a reply

We’re heading back to the turn of the decade today. No the one before that. And the one before that. Yes it’s the late ‘80s, when greed was good and cigarettes were cool.

Cue this glorious pair of classic Formula 1 cars, each made by TLCB Master MOCer Carl Greatrix and each sponsored by the world’s favourite cancer sticks.

Featuring superb custom decals and 3D-printed wheels, Carl has perfectly replicated the McLaren Honda MP4/4 that dominated the 1988 season (winning fifteen of the sixteen races), and the V12-powered Ferrari 641 that came second in the 1990 F1 Championship.

Wonderful detailing abounds and there’s much more to see of both the McLaren and Ferrari on Flickr. Buy a forty-pack of Marlboros via the links above.

LEGO Editions Scuderia Ferrari HP Helmets; 43014 Charles Leclerc & 43022 Lewis Hamilton | Set Preview

Leave a reply

We’re just a few days away from the first race of the 2026 Formula 1 World Championship, with the biggest change to the regulations in over a decade. Cue breakdowns, hugely variable pace, and much team principal emotion. And also two brand new LEGO sets, along with a whole new theme line, because these are the LEGO Editions 43104 Scuderia Ferrari HP Charles Leclerc Helmet and LEGO Editions 43022 Scuderia Ferrari HP Lewis Hamilton Helmet!

Constructed from almost 900 pieces each, the two new sets replicate the 2026 Scuderia Ferrari drivers’ headwear via some rather intricate techniques, even more stickers, and huge new visor parts that Lego spaceship builders are likely already making plans for.

The sets also include mini-figure versions of Leclerc and Hamilton for the first time, including accurate race suits and Leclerc’s signature messy hair / Hamilton’s hair plugs, plus a brick-built stand for display.

Expected to cost  $89.99 / €89,99  / £79,99, both 43014 and 43022 are aimed at ages 14+ and are available to pre-order now.

Technic 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car | Set Preview

Leave a reply

TLCB have just reviewed a championship-winning Formula 1 car, and now we have another! This is the brand new LEGO Technic 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car.

Like the Williams-Renault FW14B a quarter-century before it, the McLaren MCL39 won both the Constructors and Drivers World Championships (making Lando Norris a world champion), and with LEGO’s longstanding relationship with the British car maker and its race team, the arrival of 42228 was almost to be expected.

At 1:8 scale and with 1,675 pieces, 42228 is a hefty Technic set, with a price-tag to match, costing £189.99 / $229.99 / €209.99 when it arrives on March 1st ’26. For that sizeable outlay buyers will get working steering and pushrod suspension, a V6 engine and two-speed (boo) gearbox under a removable engine cover, and a functional drag-reduction-system (DRS) on the rear wing linked to the transmission’s top (aka ‘only other’) gear.

You also get a seriously large amount of stickers to recreate McLaren’s 2025 sponsors (even the dodgy crypto-currency ones), but not – and unlike the aforementioned Icons 10353 Williams FW14B set – staggered width tyres. Again. Come on LEGO, this is a $220 set.

Still, we suspect 42228 will be a hugely successful Technic set when it lands later this year, and further cements LEGO’s relationship with the pinnacle of motorsport and – for 2025 at least – the team at the top of it. Even with a two-speed gearbox and chronically lazy tyre sizing.

 

Space Race

1 Reply

The mid-’90s were a high watermark for Renault. Their Espace multi-purpose-vehicle was a smash hit, creating an entirely new class of car in Europe that other manufacturers scrambled to copy, whilst on track their V10 Formula 1 engine was winning absolutely everything with Williams and Benetton. And then in 1995, in moment of utter genius, they decided to merge the two…

The result was the Renault Espace F1, a one-off carbon-fibre minivan with a mid-mounted 800bhp V10 F1 engine, a top speed of nearly 200mph, and publicity other manufacturers could only dream of.

This fantastic recreation of Renault’s unhinged MPV is the work of Flickr’s Sergio Batista, and features replica decals, 3D-printed wheels, LED lights, a detailed engine and brick-built suspension, plus – in authentic Espace tradition – space for multiple mini-figures. There’s lots more of the model to see at Sergio’s photostream you can race back to when Renault were on top via the link above.

Bricks on Track | LEGO Documentary Trailer

Leave a reply

LEGO’s extensive new partnership with Formula has brought every single Formula 1 team to bedroom floors in brick form. Which of course meant some extensive marketing was needed too.

Cue the 2025 Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix drivers parade, in which nineteen of the world’s best racing drivers (and Lance Stroll) took to the circuit in life-size, drivable, 400,000 piece replicas of their real Formula 1 cars, giving the Alpine drivers their best chance of an overtake all season.

The hugely ambitious project was filmed throughout its year-long gestation, with an hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary soon due for release, showing how LEGO and Formula 1 pulled off one the greatest racing marketing stunts of recent times. The official trailer has just dropped, and you can get ready for the slowest, but perhaps best, Formula 1 race of 2025 via LEGO’s YouTube channel above.

Rolling a Six

Leave a reply

The Lego Car Blog Elves are very excited today…

This is the 1976 Tyrrell P34, Formula 1’s only racing-winning 6-wheeler, and – as things currently stand – the only 6-wheeler that will ever win a race as the fun-sponges at Formula 1 banned cars with more than four wheels a few years later. Because… honestly we have no idea.

This fabulous recreation of the Elf-liveried P34 comes from TLCB debutant bentobrick, who has constructed motorsport’s most recognisable design brilliantly in brick, including a working replica Cosworth DFV engine and four-wheel steering (as shown in the excellent render below).

There’s more of bentobrick’s superb 1976 Tyrrell P34 to see at the Eurobricks forum, where a link to building instructions is also available, and you can head to a Grand Prix in 1976 via the link above.

The Horndog

Leave a reply

2025 is the year that Christian Horner finally departed Red Bull after managing the team through two decades, six World Championships, and a few compromising Whats App messages…

He is in fact the only Team Principal that Red Bull Racing have ever had, having led the team from its formation in 2005 right up until the pictures of his horndog he rather stupidly sent caught up with him.

The team continues on however, and their RB21 is still able to win races (at least in the hands of one of its drivers), despite the loss of another titan of the team, designer Adrian Newey (although his departure wasn’t due to sending inappropriate pictures of his wang to female staff).

Cue Y Akimeshi‘s excellent brick-built recreation of the Red Bull RB21, pictured within a street circuit vignette featuring some superb ‘Pirelli’ lettering. There’s more of the build to see on Flickr and you can send some compromising What App messages and undo a twenty year legacy via the link above.

F1: The Movie

Leave a reply

Oh how we want to hate ‘F1: The Movie’. From its stupid name, to its cliched plot (old guy comes out of retirement for one last shot at glory), to the fact it is basically one giant advert for F1…

Except, it seems like it might – annoying – be rather good.

Currently with an 83% Rotten Tomatoes score, ‘F1: The Movie’ used real cars (modified F2 machines) and real tracks to create a film that takes the audience as close to being in the car as possible, even if the main protagonist being sixty years old is pushing the believability to breaking point.

Cue this fantastic recreation of the fictional team at the heart of the story, ‘APX GP’, as created beautifully in brick form by NV Carmocs of Flickr. A stunning livery perfectly captures the ‘real’ car, and you can head to the cinema, um… race track via the link above, where nearly a dozen images are available to view. Even if you’re sixty.

In Remembrance of Luca Rusconi

Leave a reply

Writing for The Lego Car Blog is mostly a happy thing. Occasionally however, it isn’t, and with much sadness this is one of those times.

Multiple bloggee, TLCB Master MOCer, and one of the most talented vehicle builders anywhere in the world, has placed his last piece.

Famed for his spectacular historic Formula 1 cars, Luca Rusconi, aka RoscoPC, was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident just outside of his hometown Milan. Aged 54, he leaves behind his wife, three children, and a Lego Community that will miss him terribly.

His incredible Lego work remains on Flickr, his website, and via archives such as our own, and we encourage you to take a look – we have no doubt it will forever be amongst the finest ever built.

Life-Size LEGO F1 in Miami

Leave a reply

Today is the Miami Formula 1 Grand Prix, and this year there’s even more plastic than usual.

The plastic surgery capital of America, Miami is used to seeing tons and tons of petroleum-based polymer. Most of it walking around. But this year there’s an additional fifteen tons of it, and none of the extra is in the faces of the race-goers. Because LEGO have recreated all ten of the 2025 Formula 1 teams’ cars in life-size form, from a staggering four million bricks.

A year in the making, each 400,000 piece, 1,500kg replica was produced by LEGO’s Kladno studio in the Czech Republic, who constructed each car around a metal frame and accurately recreated every team’s livery and sponsors.

Best of all, all ten 1:1 scale Formula 1 cars have been fitted with working steering, brakes, and an electric motor, which means that right now (literally as we type this), 2025’s Formula 1 drivers are aboard their own life-size LEGO Formula 1 cars driving around the Miami circuit.

With the cars limited to 20km/h, the parade lap will take a little longer than the Miami lap record, but that’ll give the fans plenty of time to watch actual Formula 1 drivers trundling around a racetrack in LEGO. And Lance Stroll will still probably find a way to stack it.

You’ll be able to watch the drivers in action in their very own 1:1 scale LEGO Formula 1 racers at the Miami Grand Prix on YouTube once Formula 1 upload it, you can see Lando Norris getting some sneaky life-size LEGO-driving practice in here, and you can check out the full range of officially-licensed LEGO Formula 1 sets, which the life-size models have been built to promote, by clicking this bonus link.

Fastest Printer

1 Reply

LEGO have released an enormous array of officially-licensed Formula 1 sets for 2025, and this includes last year’s Ferrari SF24 car.

But this year’s Ferrari has one crucial difference from the 2024 car; seven-time Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton. Which means Ferrari’s smooth-brained strategists can now screw up the race of the most successful driver in Formula 1 history.


Cue this phenomenal recreation of the 2025 Scuderia Ferrari, which swaps the Technic construction of LEGO’s official SF24 set for Model Team visual realism.

Flickr’s Szunyogh Balazs has enhanced this further with an accurate livery, including Ferrari’s HP title sponsor. And whilst printers are amongst the most  irritating machines in existence, with ours seemingly controlled by Ferrari’s aforementioned strategists, it’s a considerable improvement on subversive adverts for cigarettes.

There’s a whole lot more of Szunyogh’s beautifully presented Ferrari SF25 to see at his Flickr album of the same name, and you can Send-to-Printer via the link above.

LEGO Technic 42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 Car | Set Preview

2 Replies

Following our huge preview of the all new LEGO Formula 1 range, encompassing all ten teams and spanning themes from Duplo to Technic, there’s one more Formula 1 set that escaped the reveal. This is the brand new LEGO Technic 42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 Car!

Yes, like Red Bull evading the Formula 1 budget cap, or their team principal dodging responsibility for sexual misconduct, this new flagship Technic Formula 1 set eluded last week’s reveal. Although perhaps LEGO were waiting until Max Verstappen had wrapped up the Drivers’ World Championship for more clout.

Whatever, 42206 joins the equally-sized 42207 Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car previously previewed, and brings Verstappen’s title-winning F1 car to the Technic range. Like the Ferrari, the new Red Bull RB20 is aimed at ages 18+ and features a working V6 engine with spinning MGU-H unit, a two-speed gearbox, steering, suspension, operational rear-wing DRS, replica (although equal-width) Pirelli slicks, and a billion stickers.

Much like the real Red Bull F1 Team, the new 42206 set manages some trick accountancy too, costing the same €229.99 / $229.99 / £199.99 as its Ferrari counterpart, but with three-hundred more parts (although we’re not sure where they’ve all gone). How’s that for attention to the back-story! Thus if price-per-part is your thing, 42206 is the better value of the two 2025 Technic Formula 1 flagships.

You’ll be able to get your hands on the new LEGO Technic 42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 Car when it races into stores in March 2025, joining the rest of an expansive LEGO Formula 1 line-up.

LEGO Technic Mercedes-AMG F1 W14… | Set Previews

Leave a reply

#TeamLH #Blessed #Vegan #JoiningFerrarifortheMoney

Shock Formula 1 news this week, as the most successful driver of all time is due to depart the team with whom he has won six World Championships to join Scuderia Ferrari at the end of the 2024 season.

Lewis Hamilton is looking for his eighth title, to take him clear of sharing the championship record with Michael Schumacher, and thinks Ferrari might be the team to do it (despite their long-time strategy of buying past champions, and promptly consigning their winning streak to history). There may also be some money involved.

Cue #TeamLH, surely at the bottom of even the filthy cesspit that is ‘X’, losing their collective minds, and 2024’s Mercedes-AMG F1 W15 being the team’s last to be driven by Lewis.

But back to 2023 – when Hamilton was definitely never ever leaving Mercedes-AMG – and two new LEGO Technic sets that add the season’s second best car to the 2024 Technic line-up; These are the brand new Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back and Technic 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance.

Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back

Constructed from 240 pieces and aimed at ages 7+, the Technic 42165 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance Pull-Back, which we won’t be referring to by its full title again, brings Hamilton’s 2023 Formula 1 racer to bedroom floors for a pocket-money price.

With accurate shaping and livery, plus authentic sponsorship decals, 42165 looks fantastic (even if it doesn’t have slick tyres…. again), making it perhaps the best Pull-Back Technic set LEGO have ever created.

But it’s also $27/£21, which is about twice the price that Technic Pull-Backs used to be. Thus despite being the best ever Pull-Back Technic set, it might simultaneously be the worst $27/£21 one, with no technical features whatsoever.

For #TeamLH* we suspect that won’t matter though, and if you’re among them you can get your hands on the new 42165 Pull-Back when it goes on sale later this year.

Technic 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance

At six times the pieces and nine times the price, this is 42165’s (much) bigger brother; the brand new LEGO Technic 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance.

Aimed at ages 18+, 42171 recreates Lewis Hamilton’s 2023 Formula 1 car at a huge 1:8 scale and, unlike the recent non-specific 42141 Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car set, is a true replica of its real-world counterpart.

With accurate sponsorship decals and awesome new slick tyres (hurrah!!), 42171 certainly looks the part, but is perhaps a bit light on the technical bits. There’s working steering, a V6 engine and rear differential, an opening rear wing mimicking DRS, and… that’s it. Which is about as much a set costing a quarter of the price. And that price is $220/£190.

Thus despite its 1,520 pieces, 42171 is going to be a rather exclusive set. Which is suitably Formula 1. Expect to see those ace new tyres opening up a world of new creations though…

*If #TeamLH discover that LEGO included an Ayrton Senna mini-figure in the Icons 10330 McLaren MP4/4 set, but that neither of these Mercedes-AMG F1 sets include a miniature Lewis Hamilton, Twitter’s going to explode.

Speed Champions 76919 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car | Set Preview

2 Replies

During our reveal of the 2024 LEGO Speed Champions sets, fans may have noticed that one number, 76919, was missing. Well it’s missing no more; this is the brand new 76919 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car!

Replicating last year’s podium-placing McLaren MCL60 racing car (although peculiarly not called that), 76919 recreates Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri’s 2023 challenger from 245 papaya and black pieces, and about the same number of stickers.

It’s here we’d normally bemoan the stickerage, but in the case of a Formula 1 car, where the real thing wears sponsors on every inch of bodywork, they create wonderful authenticity. Every real McLaren Team sponsor is included, even the dodgy crypto-currency ones, whilst the slick tyres wear accurate Pirelli-printed type too.

The new 76919 2023 McLaren Formula 1 Race Car will reach stores in March of 2024, and we’re hoping it’s the start of many more LEGO Speed Champions replica F1 racers.