Check out this life-size McLaren F1 car made entirely of Lego

Right, let’s get the jokes out of the way straight off the bat: ‘McLaren unveils aero upgrade for Australian Grand Prix’, ‘MCL36 handles like a brick, claims Ricciardo’... any others?

Putting McLaren’s early-season woes to one side, the team has joined forces with Lego to create a life-size version of its F1 car. Looks cool, doesn’t it? They've even gone to the trouble of making an overly-complicated steering wheel.

Lando Norris and Danny Ric certainly look pleased with it. The model - no, they haven’t fitted it with a powertrain sadly, not even a cursory electric one - has been unveiled in the pit lane in Melbourne, where F1 has returned for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic forced a last-minute cancellation of the race.

Apparently it took thousands of hours for the team behind it to assemble everything, which comes as little surprise given that it features more than a quarter of a million bricks. Yowzers, that’s many, many sharp foot hazards for a confined space.

The to-scale replica of the F1 car follows the launch of the 2022 Lego Technic McLaren F1 set. Measuring 65cm in length, it’s a far more appealing size for future appearances under the Christmas tree. Presumably far more wallet-friendly too.

This isn’t the first time Lego has made something full-sized out of its plastic building materials, of course. Who remembers the Lego Bugatti Chiron?