Building a life-size LEGO® Technic McLaren Formula 1 Race Car

Created on April 8, 2022 12:28 pm

We are super proud to finally be able to reveal our latest massive project for The LEGO Group – a life sized LEGO Technic® McLaren  Formula 1 Race Car !

Life size LEGO Technic McLaren build team

This enormous model is over 5m long and weighs more than the real F1 car its modelled after! It took our whole team nearly 1,900 hours to design and build using 288,315 LEGO® bricks.

Because the model was designed for the public and the actual F1 drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris to sit in it, we had to start the model with a steel frame that could take the weight and be robust enough for thousands of people to climb in and out of it. We also had to create a custom set of metal stairs for people to use to climb in safely.

life size LEGO Technic McLaren steel
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The wheels were designed to come off (just like the real Formula 1 Race Car !) for transport. It also meant the McLaren Pit Crew could mess around with the wheels!

life-size LEGO Technic McLaren F1 wheels
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Our model is based on the LEGO Technic set 42141, which actually made it a whole lot HARDER to design and build! Because we had to replicate all of the Technic Pins, liftarm holes and details from the LEGO Technic elements, there were a lot of details we had to make which we wouldn’t have had to building a straight recreation of the real McLaren Formula 1 Race Car .

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There was a LOT of time spent fine tuning and getting all of the sponsor logos as accurate as we possibly could- and there were a lot of them scattered all over the model!

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The last section we built was a recreation of the steering wheel, which is absolutely COVERED in buttons, readouts and details. Here you can see McLaren drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris giving it a test drive!

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We are excited to say that the model will not only be on display ( inside an awesome giant LEGO Technic box no less!) at the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, but it will continue to tour with the F1 around the globe.

Watch the build team create this incredible model in the timelapse below: