The latest detailed LEGO Technic Formula 1 car has been revealed – 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car.
LEGO Technic continues to deliver detailed Formula 1 cars. The next is 42228 McLaren MCL39 F1 Car, inspired by the real 2025 McLaren MCL39 F1 car. As ever, the 1:8 scale model features steering, suspension, gearbox and differential, with a buildable V6 engine.
The set uses 1,675 elements, is priced at £199.99 / $229.99 / €229.99 and will be available on March 1 – you may be able to preorder it now though.
The McLaren MCL39 was constructed by McLaren to compete in the 2025 Formula One World Championship. Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri drove the car, which successfully defended the World Constructors’ Championship title and won the World Drivers’ Championship with Norris behind the wheel.
“Last year, we launched [42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 F1 Car] and [42207 Ferrari SF-24 F1 Car], we introduced gearbox system,” says Model Designer Andreas Jensen. “Of course, this one has that too, linking to the little electric motor and the v6. When you engage the high gear, you also engage the DRS spoiler.
“For the first time in forever, we can actually align the steering wheel to the wheels, because the McLaren has a bit of a special linkage in the back. So the steering wheel will finally be straight.”
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Andreas worked closely with McLaren as he worked on designing the set, even visiting the headquarters in the UK. “I was fortunate to go to Woking in England to meet the people there. But of course, the cars were in Australia or something at the time, so I didn’t see the actual winning car, but was pretty cool nonetheless.
“There are a lot of desires from the manufacturer, they want to make this the ultimate F1, they wanted to beef up everything, so I compared to earlier [cars], beefed up the little exhaust system there and the bumper with the red light there as well.
“When I came back from my summer vacation, they had changed a lot of the graphics, for example. This has been evolving since January [2025] until mid-August, actually. It’s a live project, but we finally locked it. I ended up on 1,675 elements.”
There were around 10 significant iterations of the model as Andreas worked on it. “I am super proud of my first 18+ SKU. But of course, it is built on the shoulders of my colleagues who made the previous models, but I tried to put some unique stuff into it, both shaping wise and functionality wise, as I showed you. Of course, it also demanded some unique solutions for the steering and the building linkage to the VRS system with the gearbox.
“The engine is the same [as the previous F1 cars], the newness is the linkage of the gearbox to the spoiler and the DRS system. That’s something I came up with and consulted with fellow designers on how to do it properly. I was thinking, should you manipulate it from the back and that changes the gear? Or should it be a more rigid gear change? We concluded that it’s important for the gears to fully engage. The engine goes at different speeds.”
Because the new engine had already been designed for previous Technic vehicles, Andreas did not need to craft any new elements. There are some rather fancy looking new tyres on the set though.
“Finally, we have the white printing on the tyres. We only had the red and the yellow before and these will be decorated as well, with the Google Chrome wheel. Fun fact about the Google colours – they’re actually based on LEGO colours.
“One of the first cabinets they made with a server in, was in a basement or a garage. Back in the day, they actually built the cabinet of DUPLO bricks. They just lifted the colours from our DUPLO bricks, which are the same colours as our LEGO bricks. So this is full circle!”
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