This weekend, Formula 1 is back on melbourne, the city where the season usually started. After a few years without visiting the Australian streets due to the pandemic, the single-seaters will roar again in a Grand Prix of the premier motor category on a renovated Albert Park circuit. However, there will be a single-seater that we will not hear as much as the others: the lego mclarens that those of Woking have exhibited by the pit lane before the first free practices.
A McLaren MCL35 in LEGO version
Before the Formula 1 pre-season began, McLaren showed us his collaboration with LEGO. A rather fun set in which we were invited to build the 2021 model with which the British team had once again attracted attention after a few years in a bottomless pit. The collaboration was presented alongside its two drivers: the young Lando Norris and the ever-smiling Daniel Ricciardo. Already at that time, Ricciardo seemed to enjoy the model like a child. What the Australian probably did not expect is that, upon returning home as a local driver, he was waiting for him in the pits for a whole full-size replica of the McLaren MCL35M.
This project has been done entirely by hand, involving both McLaren engineers at the Woking headquarters and LEGO employees. The work has been coordinated by the designer Ryan McNaught, known as ‘The Brickman’. This is the only Australian designer certified by the Danish company, and he has created very interesting replicas of Pompeii, the Roman Colosseum or the Greek Acropolis. According to him, they have taken 1,893 hours in creating the single-seater, and has a total of 288,315 pieces. That, by the way, we do not know what is more tedious, whether to put them together or count them.
McLaren drivers got on the replica, did it break?
Both Ricciardo and Norris did not hesitate for a second to get into the car. Luckily, Ryan McNaught took it for granted that the two careerists from the British firm were going to do it, so the plastic brick work resisted without problems. It wouldn’t be the first time a LEGO vehicle has gone viral after someone climbed in for a photo. After the snapshots, the car was removed from the pit lane and It is located in the vicinity of the Paddock so that all the fans who visit the Albert Park circuit this weekend can admire it and take a photo with it.
lego mclaren! 😮
Daniel Ricciardo tested out a rather different version of Mclaren’s 2022 car… pic.twitter.com/y4ZIcoYnU1
—Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) April 7, 2022
Of course, memes have also been inevitable. And it is that this year’s papaya single-seater, with the new regulation change, is not performing as the team expected. Luckily, the two drivers were able to relax for a while on top of the LEGO replica before the Grand Prix started. There will be time to complain on Sunday about the poor performance of the new car or to talk about the new shareholders who are preparing to buy the F1 team.
