Formula 1 and Lego are teaming up with a launch set for 2025. Under this new deal, the two will collaborate in a way we’ve never seen before. Sure, Lego has sold several F1-centric sets but now things are changing. If you love Formula 1 and you love Legos then it’s a very good day.
The partnership, which was just announced, will see Lego offering a wider array of F1-licensed products, toys for all age groups, and chances to play with these toys for those who attend F1 races. You might think that F1 has actually been involved with Lego all this time, but the reality is a little different.
Let’s take a deeper look at the history of F1 cars and Lego, break down exactly what this new deal reveals, and what toys we believe will arrive in stores next year.
Lego already makes several car-themed toys and among them are dozens of F1-themed race cars, trucks, and even pit sets.
What many might not know though is that its connection to F1 goes all the way back to 1975 when it released the 392 Formula 1.
No, it doesn’t have any specific F1 branding but it does have the Shell logo and wordmark on the wing and sides.
By 1990, Lego Technic launched a Formula 1-esque vehicle and Lego Duplo arrived with its 2609 toy set including a pint-sized F1-styled car.
Starting in 2000, things became far more serious between F1 teams and Lego. Williams and Ferrari began to license their respective brands to Lego for toys.
In recent years, many teams have followed suit to the point that McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari, and Aston Martin all have their own Lego sets for various ages.
Hell, McLaren, and Lego even teamed up to build a full-sized McLaren P1 that Lando Norris drove at Silverstone. That’s how close these brands are.
Considering all of that, what’s the deal with this new partnership? Well, keen-eyed folks might have noticed that in all of these toys, one logo has been missing, that of F1 itself.
This new deal means that Lego is going to have a license to build toys that pertain to pretty much everything F1 including the teams, the drivers, the tracks, and more.
From what Lego tells us, it plans to put that freedom to good use.
“Fans will get to dive deeper into the thrill of top speed racing, brick by brick, as they recreate exciting moments and icons from the race track, pit lane and garages in LEGO brick form.”
That indicates that we might end up with historic track configurations, iconic cars never before seen in Lego form, and maybe new Technic sets that recreate unique components from F1. It could also mean that we’ll get historic figures in Lego’s minifig collectible series.
F1 itself shed a little more light on the deal saying:
“Activity to come in 2025 will also include a focus on bringing fans closer to the world of innovation, technology and engineering through the fun of LEGO building, with in-person activities at races, and products that celebrate the sport’s engineering and technical heritage.”
So expect an entire Lego F1 grid of toys sometime early next year. There’s no word yet on if the sets will initially reflect 2024 teams or 2025 teams but we suspect the former since the season is ongoing. This represents a big shift for Lego since it indicates an expansion of what it’s already doing. For example, it usually produces 12 Speed Champion sets a year.
As there are already ten F1 teams to take up most of those spots it would be logical for Lego to expand the Speed Champion lineup rather than just have two other random cars to bookend the ten F1 cars. Don’t forget that this announcement also says that toys will be available for all ages so we can expect F1-licensed Duplo sets all the way up to adult-oriented sets.
Finally, those who attend races should expect the chance to play with some of these toys on-site. Hopefully, they aren’t marked up to several thousand dollars in keeping with pretty much everything else at an F1 race.
“Legos”
The plural of Lego is Lego, not Legos.
like the plural of sheep is sheep, not sheeps
The plural of fish is fishes
You right though????????
If you have more than one “Captain Pedantic”, are they “Captain Pedantics” or would they be “Captains Pedantic”?
I just built the 2023 McLaren speed champions kit.
It was a great kit with awesome details, and an abundance of stickers. Definitely one of the most enjoyable builds I’ve done and one of the most faithful representations of the original. Amazing for $25.
leaks of the releases are already well underway, supposedly there are going to be 10 speed champion releases from march, and then 5 more in the summer, which those could be the garages/etc areas from a track.
they seem to be keeping some of the previous speed champions cars around, so those will still be around at the same time to keep it filled out.
the corresponding “minifigure” series run is going to be part of this but it looks like it’s going to be minicar builds with character heads popping out the top. which is weird, but something they have done before.
I can has Tyrrell P34 ?
My bank account can only take so much damage
I have several of the Speed Champion kits and I’ve been very impressed with the execution for such (relatively) inexpensive kits. Really, my only gripe is the Merc AMG F1 set is that they included the Project One instead of the AMG GT Safety Car like they did with the Aston Martin set.
Can’t wait to replace my Wish.com knockoff Lego Williams FW45 cars with actual Lego ones!
the speed champion line has some of the best building techniques in them compared to everything else Lego does, it’s ingenious some of the things they do to get the lines right.
Sometimes I wonder if they’re a reward/challenge for their best designers.
As a late Gen X kid Lego was the gold standard. We just built from scratch what we saw on TV/movies and liked.
We also had some Playmobile (1980’s) my dad bought at a specialty toy shop (SW Randall, Pittsburgh) that was far above normal toys in quality and creativity.
I know Torch has written about the newer Playmobile sets in the recent past. Makes me want to be a kid again.
I want the Playmobil Magnum PI Ferarri and the A-Team van. I already have Ecto-1, KITT, and the Back to the Future Delorean. While we’re on the subject, I want the USS Enterprise, but it’s pricey.
A fever dream is a Playmobil Airwolf with a Hawke, Dom, Caitlin, and Archangel minifigure.
My son has the Scooby Doo Mystery Machine (with characters), the Ghostbusters Ecto2 and firehouse sets (again with characters. The vehicles and firehouse are awesome to the point that the themed Paymobil characters look a bit off…
Yes I bought my son Ecto-1 and the firehouse and the hot dog stand for Slimer (which he lost) and the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. I thought Ecto-1 was so cool I bought myself one, too.
My son loves Scooby Doo, but I never bought the van. Playmobil generally has an excellent attention to detail, but the GMC/Chevy van mold turned me off. I wanted the anonymous Mystery Machine from the original cartoon.
Buy them before they get discontinued and quintuple in price.
Just like everyone else! Look at how many unopened lego ucs star destroyer sets are on Amazon.
Mine is only unassembled for lack of the space to put it once done. As with cars: resale value be damned, I will drive/build it!
I never understood buying a lego set for resale. I’m like you. It is getting built!
people look at the sets that sell for crazy amounts from 25+ years ago and don’t realize Lego is producing them exponentially more now and somehow think they can make profit like that in just a year or two.
Those sets from long ago have value due to being rare. Scalpers are just hurting themselves in the long run and pissing me off in the short run
Eff the flippers. Lego puts the instructions online and we can always just buy the pieces on Bricklink if we don’t already have all of them. Stickers can be printed at home if needed.
Lego mass produces all of their sets for at least a year, most of them for a minimum of 2yrs. they should be easily available throughout that whole time.
*Max Mosely in Nazi bondage gear minifig not available in initial series.
Lego has a habit of putting the most desirable minifigs out in odd sets. I bet that minifig will come with the concession stand.
They already have a Bernie Ecclestone minifig
Nice
So, you can stage a whole f1 race in lego here soon? And since it is lego, a wreck will make some nice carnage. “The whole field wrecked! Pieces everywhere! One driver is missing his legs! Oh the humanity! Waita 2 racers are racing on foot!” So much better than a real f1 race. And yes, I’m a nascar, talladega nights, and days of thunder fan.
Years ago my son had 3 or 4 formula looking lego kits (little junior kits). He had them all lined up one behind the other. I asked him if they were racing, he said “no, it’s a parade”. I said “same thing”. He just looked at me funny.
I don’t think he got it.
The grille on the Vantage model is brilliant!
I have that set, they were very creative in mimicking the contours and details of the car. More than once, I’ve remarked about the creativity of the Lego designers in how they executed something in the Speed Champions kits.