Constructors champions: How 10 LEGO cars won the Miami Grand Prix

Lego is cool. Full-size Lego models are even cooler. Full-size Lego models of Formula One cars that actually drive? Now that’s off the charts. But hat’s what Lego made for the Miami Grand Prix drivers’ parade, and it well and truly stole the show.

Even for the 20 professional Formula One drivers, taking these Lego cars around the track could be the ultimate boy’s toy experience. Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton described it as the best driver’s parade ever, and it was clear he wasn’t the only one enjoying it. The social channels of the manufacturers, drivers and spectators blew up with images of the Lego cars being taken around the track – and the smashes along the way.

So, how did this happen? And how do you build a Lego car that big and make it safe to drive around a Formula One track? I spoke to the team at Lego ahead of the big reveal to find out how they pulled off such an impressive stunt.

From first gear to F1

Pro drivers work their way up through racing leagues to reach F1, often starting in karting when they are just about old enough to see over the wheel. For Lego though, it took a different route to make it to the track.

Lego announced its multi-year partnership with F1 ahead of the Las Vegas Grand Prix back in November 2024. It launched a series of F1-inspired products across its different ranges to appeal to all ages of Lego builders. These include Lego Duplo for pre-school kids, all the way up to the Technic Lego models for adults.

To celebrate this, Lego built a full-size version of one of the F1 cars and took it to Las Vegas for the race. For Miami, though, it went bigger, with a little encouragement from the FIA.

“They came back with this idea of actually not just one, but 10, and not just 10 but drivable,” says Julia Goldin, Chief Product and Marketing Officer for Lego.

“It's really a testament to the partnership with F1 when they were like, let's go for it, because they always want to bring more excitement to the audience. The drivers' parade is such an iconic way for the drivers to be accessible, visible, and interact with people.”

How many bricks in a full-size Lego F1 car?

So the plan was put in place to build 10 full-size cars – one for each of the manufacturers in the race – and have them capable of being driven around the track for the drivers’ parade. It was a big ask of the Lego designers and engineers, and they only had eight months to do it.

Each car contains over 400,000 bricks and took more than 2,000 man-hours to build. That’s a total of four million bricks for the entire set.

“We started with a mock-up of the cockpit in Styrofoam, then wood,” says Lego designer Jonatan Jurion.

The design is an upscaled version of the Lego Speed Champions range, with the same layout of bricks, just upscaled – so in theory, you could build this at home, if you had enough bricks.

“We use proprietary software because 400,000 bricks is a lot,” adds Jurion. “We have specialists creating details. The logos were a big challenge as well. I think the team did a really great job depicting all the logos.”

Making them drive

Turning these full-size cars into full-functioning driving machines was the biggest challenge for Lego’s engineers. The Lego bricks alone weigh around one ton, while the automotive parts add another 500kg, making this nearly double the weight of a real F1 car.

Underneath, all 10 cars feature an identical steel frame and genuine F1 Perelli P Zero tyres, with hydraulic brakes. Then there’s the battery, which provides 8kW of power – enough to get the cars around a full lap of the 5.3km circuit at a top speed of 20km/h.

The other challenge was to make a cockpit big enough to fit two people. “Our designers did a great job, because, for example, they need to work with the space of the cockpit in the real Speed Champions cars,” says Lego engineer Martin Smida.

A runaway success

There must have been some held breaths inside the race team rooms as their prize drivers took to the Lego cars for the parade. It’s the most fun I’ve seen any of them have going around the track, and it was caught on their own phones as they waved to the crowds.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a group of highly competitive race drivers, the parade soon turned into a competition. The Williams car ended up against the wall thanks to Mercedes, and the Alpine car lost most of its nose in another collision. All cars made it to the end, though, and it was Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto who took the win in the Alpine.

The spare bricks were quickly removed from the track, and drivers were ready to take on the main race of the day. If anything, an anticlimax after the thrilling Lego race, I’m sure. Though definitely a lot faster and louder.

How do you beat that?

Lego pulled off a marketing masterclass with this event. It’s something that was watched by millions of people around the world and has everyone talking about those cars. So what comes next for Lego?

“We are working very closely with F1 and asking ourselves the same question,” says Julia Goldin.

“In terms of the partnership and other amazing, epic things we could do together… watch the space.”

Of course, there’s going to be an 11th team added to the lineup in 2026, so I suspect we’ll see a Cadillac F1 car added to the range when it is revealed, and hopefully a full-size version too. Could we ever see these Lego F1 cars get up to raceable speeds? I really hope so.

Main image credit: Bryn Lennon - Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images

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