Latest news with #LegoF1
Gulf Weekly
08-05-2025
- Automotive
- Gulf Weekly
Lego lady!
Motorsport maverick Faten Amin, the first Bahraini woman in a host of top organising roles in the sport, has taken her journey off-road with her collection of unique Lego F1 sets. The 39-year-old Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) digital content executive is blending her love for the sport with her relatively recent hobby of Lego set-building. 'I have 66 sets so far, but not all of them are built – about 14 to 15 sets are not built yet,' she told GulfWeekly during the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix held at the BIC in mid-April. 'I like to have a collection, rather than having one or two sets, and Lego kept bringing out more sets, so my hobby just keep on growing.' But Faten is more than just a collector. She's created a unique niche for herself by documenting her Lego builds through ASMR-style videos on TikTok, capturing the satisfying clicks of each piece coming together. 'When I build the sets, I do a video where it's music-free to keep the focus on the ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response) click, making sure that it is very clear,' she added. Last year, Faten made history as the first Bahraini woman to serve as Clerk Of the Course (COC) for the FIA Formula 3 Championship during the 2024 Bahrain Grand Prix. This year, in addition to her duties at the BIC, she had a dual role for the support races happening during the race weekend – deputy COC for the Porsche Carrera Cup Middle East and chief communications for F2. However, she was able to make time to stock up on new Lego sets, one of which she even got signed by the Ferrari duo of seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc. 'Ever since I was young, I was always fascinated by Lego but I never had the time or budget for it,' she reminisced. 'However, that changed in 2019, when my husband bought me a Lego Movie Maker set because I do stop motion videos. The set could actually help me do stop motion with Lego, and it teaches you everything. 'He saw the set and knew it was perfect for me. Ever since then, I just kept on buying the sets that I wanted, like the Friends set, the McLaren, and it just grew.' The first set that she worked on was a small speed champion car, which she completed in about 90 minutes. Up next was the 2022 McLaren F1 car, which took her about 10 hours. What started as a casual interest quickly transformed into a serious collection, with Faten now boasting an impressive collection spanning diverse themes, from F1 racing sets to botanical collections featuring delicate roses and tulips. 'When I'm building these sets, I can meditate with no thoughts at all,' she explained. 'It just clears the mind. That's what I like. I like to sit and clear my mind out of everything from life. That's why I enjoy building it. It's like my yoga session with building Legos.' Her most challenging build to date was the Ferrari Daytona set, a 24-hour project she completed just a few days before giving birth – something that didn't even hold her F1 organising ambitions, as she served as the COC last year while pregnant. A veteran marshal since 2005, Faten has been a pivotal figure in Bahrain's racing community. Last year, she made history by becoming the first female Clerk of the Course for Formula Three – a remarkable achievement she accomplished while eight months pregnant. Her collection reflects her motorsports passion, with numerous F1 and racing-themed Lego sets taking pride of place in her home. She even treasures a small piece of carbon fiber from an F2 wing – a memento from her early marshalling days. 'I've always been passionate about motorsports,' Amin explains. 'From watching NASCAR as a child to marshalling at local races, it's been a lifelong love.'
USA Today
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
How Lego used nearly 4M pieces to build 10 life-sized, drivable Formula 1 cars
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." Miami Grand Prix to feature drivable F1 cars made out of LEGOs Ever wonder what a F1 care made out of LEGOs would look like? Well the Miami Grand Prix has you covered as these unveil these drivable cars ahead of Sunday's race. Sports Pulse "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.'
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
'Sarcastic' Hamilton shows frustration as Ferrari struggle again
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc enjoyed a fun ride in Lego F1 cars before enduring more frustration in the Miami Grand Prix (Mark Thompson) Lewis Hamilton showed his frustration with his Ferrari team's tactics at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday as the Scuderia once again struggled to compete. Hamilton finished eighth with team-mate Charles Leclerc seventh as Ferarri remain with just one podium finish so far this season -- Leclerc's third place in Jeddah. Advertisement A fired-up Hamilton fired off several barbed comments over the team radio after asking for Leclerc to allow him to pass. The Briton had a spell in the race when he appeared to be driving quicker than Leclerc and clearly felt he had a better chance of closing ground on Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli. "I'm just burning up my tyres behind him. You want me to just sit here the whole race?" asked Hamilton. When he was finally allowed to pass, three laps later, Hamilton responded: "This is not good teamwork, that's all I'm going to China I got out of the way." He was critical of the time it took the team to make their decisions saying: "Have a tea break while you're at it, come on!" Advertisement When the seven-time world champion was given permission to move ahead of Leclerc, he was unable to make progress and with the roles reversed and the Monte Carlo driver looking faster behind him, the team switched their positions back. Hamilton was then informed that Carlos Sainz of Williams, the former Ferrari driver, was just 1.4 seconds behind him and responded "You want me to let him past as well?" After the race Hamilton said he needed to raise the issues. "I lost a lot of time behind Charles and in that moment I was thinking let's make a concise decision and not waste time. I'm sure people didn't like certain topics but you've got to understand it's frustrating, people say way worse things than I say, it was more sarcastic than anything. Advertisement "I'm not frustrated now but we will work internally and we keep pushing," he said. Frederic Vasseur, the Ferrari team principal, defended the thinking behind the moves and added "I can understand the frustration of the guys in the car but in the end it was well executed." Leclerc opted for diplomacy. "It's a difficult situation, I think I will unfortunately go for the boring answer and I'm not going to comment too much here," he said. "It's obvious today is not the way we want to manage a race, we will discuss internally to make better decisions," Leclerc said. "There's no bad feelings for Lewis, absolutely not, it's just as a team we need to do better and today was a proof of that. For the rest I don't want to speak more into the details." sev/bb
Yahoo
04-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
How Lego used nearly 4M pieces to build 10 life-sized, drivable Formula 1 cars
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. Just 20 big kids living their best lives 😎#F1 #MiamiGP — Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025 "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. Contact between McLaren and Alpine... and the LEGO bricks go flying! 💥#F1 #MiamiGP — Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025 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. We can't get enough of these life-size LEGO F1 cars! 😀#F1 #F1Sprint #MiamiGP — Formula 1 (@F1) May 3, 2025 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." "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.' The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lego debuts 10 life-sized Formula 1 cars at Miami Grand Prix
USA Today
04-05-2025
- Automotive
- USA Today
How Lego used nearly 4M pieces to build 10 life-sized, drivable Formula 1 cars
How Lego used nearly 4M pieces to build 10 life-sized, drivable Formula 1 cars Show Caption Hide Caption Miami Grand Prix to feature drivable F1 cars made out of LEGOs Ever wonder what a F1 care made out of LEGOs would look like? Well the Miami Grand Prix has you covered as these unveil these drivable cars ahead of Sunday's race. Sports Pulse 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. Contact between McLaren and Alpine... and the LEGO bricks go flying! 💥#F1 #MiamiGP — Formula 1 (@F1) May 4, 2025 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." "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.' The USA TODAY app gets you to the heart of the news — fast. Download for award-winning coverage, crosswords, audio storytelling, the eNewspaper and more.
