I Got F1 and Lego Fever…
I’ve been interested in F1 since 2017 but never really followed it fanatically.
My girlfriend recently took me to see the F1 movie and I absolutely loved it. But I didn’t expect that I would be sent down a rabbit hole.
Suddenly, I started watching Drive to Survive on Netflix, and reinstalled F1 2017 on my Steam Deck.
But the one thing I’m most happy about is my completion of Lego’s Red Bull F1 car. While I’m a fan of Max Verstappen, I got this particular set because Red Bull was the first team I followed when I first got interested in F1 back in 2017. This was when Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen were on the same team.
This was the first Lego set I’ve assembled in years.
As a kid, I played with Legos a lot. I vividly remember collecting Bionicle figures and Star Wars sets and acting out scenes with them like they were in a movie. Now, I regret that I donated them in high school.
Surprisingly, this set was the perfect mix of simplicity and complexity. With 251 pieces, I was able to complete the set in about an hour and a half.
Here’s what came inside the box: six bags with the Lego pieces, an instructions manual, stickers, and a base piece.
One thing that’s interesting is the bags used to store the pieces are made of paper instead of clear plastic. I think it’s nice first step towards sustainability despite the fact that Lego is a plastic company.
While the assembly of the car was fun, the instructions were not always clear. There were some moments I struggled to understand where certain pieces went and had additional pieces that made me fear I may have missed a couple of steps.
The assembly of the car is broken into 3 different phases.
Phase 1:
Phase 2:
Phase 3 (Final Assembly):
There were a few left over pieces that were not required for the final assembly but I took some creative steps to put some of them into good use.
For example, these two pieces were not required for the final assembly but since there were two available spots that were perfect for them, why not just add them?
The last part was rather a surprise to me. Normally F1 cars have lights on the back to indicate when they’re slowing down, but they were not part of this set’s design.
I fortunately had a spar red piece that I could put in the back for the “light” and a gray one for the exhaust. While it’s not the most realistic, I felt it was a nice personal touch and really brought back the joy of building Legos again.
While this was a fun set, I’m a bit disappointed at how fragile it feels. From what I remember, Legos are meant to be played with but any slight movement caused a small piece of the car to fall occasionally off. It’s almost as if this was not meant for play but display. It’s also strange how the front wheels don’t have a turn mechanism but I suppose I can’t expect that from a $30 model.
Overall this set was really fun to make. It reconnected me with a part of myself that I haven’t felt in a long time, the part of me that loves to build.
I told myself this was likely a one time purchase but I want to build another car and other Lego models because my inner maker could not stop smiling as I was building this.
