Formula 1 Drivers Just Hit the Track in These Full-Sized Lego Cars

If you've ever attended a Formula 1 event, you'll know: The cars are loud. The revving of an F1 car’s powerfulness portion tin scope up to 140 decibels. That’s similar lasting adjacent to a firework arsenic it’s exploding. Now ideate there’s 20 of them, 20 fireworks going disconnected simultaneously arsenic the cars roar past you astatine 200 mph. The daze waves rip done the aerial and rattle the bones successful your chest. It’s a full-body sensory experience. Most importantly, it rules hard.

It's precisely that visceral acquisition that Lego wanted to pat into when, past year, it partnered with Formula 1 to make 10 afloat sets of teams and drivers for its Speed Champions line. This year, it's taking that a measurement further, and making them an awesome, full-sized reality. Today astatine the Miami Grand Prix, 20 drivers—including the personage drivers for McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari—introduced themselves to the assemblage portion driving lifelike Big Builds of their F1 cars successful the driver’s parade.

The task to get present has been arsenic large arsenic it sounds. Over the people of 8 months, a squad of 26 Lego engineers took astir 22,000 hours full to physique the brick-based fleet. This took the full practice of each Formula 1 team. Lego decorator Marcel Stastny noted that each F1 squad provided implicit IP with approvals for faithful reproduction. “We had large cooperation,” Stastny said, which, beyond the engineering, was a coup fixed that Formula 1 teams defender the car's designs truthful closely.

Before their way debut, the cars were displayed successful the Lego Garage astatine the westbound field of Hard Rock Stadium successful Miami, Florida. I had the accidental to get wrong the McLaren car, which is made from the nonstop aforesaid modular Lego bricks that your kids tin bargain astatine home, made with Lego’s famously choky tolerances. It feels … well, arsenic coagulated arsenic a brick, which makes consciousness fixed that the car weighs implicit 3,000 pounds. You tin thin connected it oregon slap it with your manus without worry, though I’m beauteous definite idiosyncratic would’ve stopped maine if I’d tried to footwear it. There are immoderate amazingly faithful features. It mightiness not person a existent V6 motor (in fact, each car tin lone spell 12 mph), and the resistance simplification strategy (DRS) mightiness not enactment either, but those are existent F1 Pirelli tires acceptable successful a Lego hub.

Attention to Detail

F1 superfan and Lego ambassador Nicole, who goes by the sanction GirlBricksALot, concurs. “Down to the spoons for the broadside presumption mirrors, the tiles that are utilized for the camera equine connected top, adjacent the food slope portion connected the beforehand wing—they’re identical,” she says. “Every portion of the car is satisfying.”

This isn't Lego's archetypal Big Build successful this space. In 2018, its designers brought that aforesaid committedness to authenticity with the drivable 1:1 Lego Bugatti made from Lego Technic elements (that’s Lego’s engineering enactment with rods, gears, and axles). Last year, McLaren operator Lando Norris took a Lego Technic P1 each the mode astir the people astatine Silverstone. But gathering ten authentic, driveable cars successful 8 months has been a feat connected a antithetic scale.

Each 1 of these is, of course, a masterful selling operation, with Lego keen to committedness this level of attraction to item has filtered down to the versions that you tin physique astatine location for $30—bringing racing fans person to the cars they mightiness ne'er spot successful existent life. A spot similar Drive to Survive, it feels that Lego Speed Champions is serving arsenic an entryway into a athletics that has been opaque and inaccessible to truthful galore for astir of its history—something Nicole says she experienced arsenic a young fan.

“[As a kid], I would travel F1 with articles oregon YouTube snippets,” she said. “You couldn’t adjacent ticker it. It’s impossibly hard to get into the athletics arsenic a driver, and it was impossibly costly to spell to.”

Today, the athletics doesn't consciousness as inaccessible. I myself had a fig of surprises. For a athletics that has traditionally catered to specified a affluent clientele, it requires a astonishing magnitude of carnal endurance, whether that’s walking 11,000 steps to get from the gross to your section, broiling successful the prima successful your seat, oregon surviving for 8 hours connected crystal pick with cocoa condiment due to the fact that you (I) garbage to hold successful immoderate much lines.

The 2nd astonishment was conscionable however overmuch amusive everyone was having (not alcohol-related, though determination was plentifulness of that). There are mode much radical wearing comic hats shaped similar cars oregon wings than I expected, mode much kids shrieking astatine the vibrations successful the crook bridges. When it started raining during the signifier rounds, I hid nether an umbrella until I noticed fans gathering astir the turns cheering whenever a operator threw up a precocious expanse of water, similar Shamu. Both Formula 1 and Lego person a affluent past and a profoundly loyal instrumentality base. It was particularly casual to announcement during the driver's parade that some are conscionable … fun.

My 7-year-old lad mightiness not beryllium capable to tolerate the vigor and walking that a Grand Prix requires (I tin hardly tolerate it, and I’m successful my 40s) but he’s presently connected his 6th Formula 1 acceptable and counting. It's beauteous awesome that teenage prodigy Kimi Antonelli rode successful a car that looks conscionable similar his.