How Lego used nearly 4M pieces to build 10 life-sized, drivable Formula 1 cars

USA Today

05-05-2025

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — One of the biggest attractions at the 2025 Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix has been Lego's display of 10 life-sized cars built with nearly 400,000 pieces each.
That's right – nearly 400,000 each.
Simple math for the F1 cars built for the 10 teams amounts to nearly 4 million Lego pieces used for the collaboration.
And the biggest highlight: The F1 drivers behind the wheel of the drivable, electric cars for the drivers' parade around the Miami International Autodrome located Hard Rock Stadium before the Miami Grand Prix begins on May 4.
"It feels better than the real thing," McLaren's Lando Norris said in an interview before the parade.
"I couldn't believe it at first," Williams driver Carlos Sainz said before mentioning the soaked track following early afternoon rain before the race. "With the slick tire on the wet, it's going to be fun."
"Hopefully we don't have Legos going everywhere," McLaren's Oscar Piastri added.
George Russell drove the Mercedes with Kimi Antonelli sitting behind, while Charles Leclerc drove as Lewis Hamilton sat behind in the Ferrari. It appeared the Mercedes grazed the Ferrari on the Miami straightaway, while pieces did fall off after the McLaren made contact with the Alpine car.
"I think they need to sweep the track," said Red Bull's Max Verstappen, the two-time Miami Grand Prix winner and pole sitter for Sunday's race.
The life-sized Lego F1 cars each weight 1,500 kilograms, or roughly 3,306.93 pounds – nearly double the weight of an actual F1 car. F1 cars and their drivers are not allowed to weigh more than 800kg total (1,763.7 pounds), per 2025 F1 regulations.
However, they don't drive as fast as F1 cars can go. In fact, far from it. The Lego F1 cars have about seven or eight horsepower, carrying a maximum speed of 20 kilometers an hour – or just 12 miles per hour. The real F1 cars can reach upwards of 200 mph at the Miami track, and upwards of 230 mph at any given race.
The Lego pieces were placed around a steel structure base for safety, and built so two people can sit in the car – one behind the wheel, and another behind a removable seat back.
They're also equipped with a real F1 steering wheel, four Pirelli tires, and hydraulic brakes used on F1 cars.
"They are upscaled Lego speed champions sets,' said Jonatan Jurion, lead designer for the Formula 1 project. "We had to figure out how to make two people sit in it – that was quite a challenge. We mocked that up first, and we built the scale of the car around it, and it turned out pretty nicely that it actually has the size of the real F1 car. So that's pretty cool. We got the real Pirelli tires on them, which is really cool as well.'
The project was completed in the Lego Group's Kladno factory, located in the Czech Republic. It took about eight months to complete from concept to finish, equating to roughly 22,000 hours of work, by a team of 26 designers, engineers and Lego builders.
This isn't the first time Lego produced a car made of Lego pieces for Formula 1: McLaren driver Lando Norris drove a McLaren made of Lego pieces at Silverstone in Sept. 2024.
But this undertaking – 10 cars instead of just one – is an accomplishment for Lego.
"It was really exceptional project because the timeline that we usually have for one car, we needed to reshuffle to be able to produce 10 in the same timing," said Marcel Stastny, a project manager at Lego. "So this was a very challenging project, but we were super excited from the very first moment when we saw this."
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"This is the highest recognition of hard work for our whole team," added Martin Smeida, an elite engineer for the project.
The cars appeared to be a a big hit for the drivers, in a lighthearted parade, before the Miami race began.
'That was the most fun drivers' parade we've ever had,' Hamilton said. 'It was very fun.'