Lego’s built 10 functioning F1 cars for the Miami Grand Prix*

Lego has really outdone itself this time. Three years on from its incredible but very stationary full-size F1 McLaren build, the world’s premier manufacturer of barefoot hazards has constructed 10 fully operational F1 cars for the Miami Grand Prix.

Obviously they’re not for racing (although you have to wonder if Sauber might be keen), instead bringing a bit of novelty factor to the drivers’ parade ahead of this weekend’s race.

‘Hang on,’ we hear you say. ‘If there are 10 cars and 20 drivers… do half of them have to walk?’ Fair question, to which the answer is ‘no’. For these almost 1:1 scale Lego F1 cars are made for two.

“We actually started developing the cockpit first because we had to fit two people inside,” Jonathan Jurion, senior designer for the project, tells TG. “Obviously the Lego set fits a mini-figure... which doesn't have the anatomy of a real person.

“So fitting two people inside was a bit of a challenge. We had people of different heights sitting inside, kind of figuring it out.”

The designs are actually based on the (much) smaller Speed Champions versions, and while the teams didn’t have to hand over reams of complicated 3D data to make the whole enterprise possible, they did all sign off on their individual liveries.

Each car features almost 400,000 bricks and weighs 1,500kg, with 26 specialists involved in the design, engineering, and manufacturing. A team of dedicated builders worked in shifts to get each car finished.

All told, you’re looking at 22,000 hours of work. Or to put it another way, if one person worked around the clock without loo breaks or sleep, they would’ve needed… two and a half years. Wowzers.

Also, there isn’t a single brick used that you can’t buy in a shop, so if you really wanted to you could do this yourself. Likely very expensive though.

Right, time for powertrain details. No 1.6-litre V6 hybrid here obviously; instead Lego’s done the sensible thing and stuck with an electric motor that generates 11bhp, or about the same as an Alonso-McLaren era Honda. It’s rear-wheel drive, and the motor, single-speed transmission and differential are all housed in one unit. The brakes are from a racing car, although Lego won’t say which one.

If we had unlimited budget and time, we could go really close to the real thing

The top speed is barely more than 12mph and the battery is only big enough to do the parade lap (plus a little extra, just in case). But F1-rivalling G force was never the goal.

“If we had unlimited budget and time, we could go really close to the real thing if we wanted to,” Jurion insists, adding that the team had to deliver all 10 cars in just eight months when before one car had taken up to a year. “So we try to keep it as simple as possible and focus more on reliability and drivability.” Probably wise.

They’re as simple as it gets to operate: there’s one switch (up for forward, down for reverse), and two buttons to wake up the motor and power steering. Then there’s the steering wheel, brake and throttle pedals, and that’s it. All thoroughly tested back in the factory parking lot in Kladno, Czech Republic, we’re assured.

That didn’t stop Lego from sending the drivers a user manual in advance. Although we suspect that was more about making sure they stuck to the Renault Twizy-style seating arrangement, rather than half of them riding shotgun a la Senna and Mansell…

After this weekend the cars will go on tour, rather than following the more traditional route of being consigned to the attic, never to be seen again.

“They’ll spread around the globe and hopefully inspire kids – and adults – to join Lego and Formula One as well,” says Jurion. You never know, if next year’s regs turn out as bad as the doom mongers are claiming, F1 might yet put in an order for another 10…