2025 was the year the LEGO Group went all in on Formula 1, so we're looking back to see what went well – and what didn't.
Over a year ago now, the LEGO Group announced an ambitious, multi-year partnership with Formula 1, with sets launching across Speed Champions, City, Technic, DUPLO, and Icons throughout 2025. While the world of motorsports wasn't new to the LEGO Group, this represented a shift to dramatically increase the number of sets, as well as working with every single Formula 1 team on the grid, rather than just a select few.
Now that 2025 has been and gone, looking back at the year of LEGO Formula 1 certainly has some highs. The set selection has managed to create LEGO Formula 1 cars for every age range, price point, scale, and purpose you can imagine.
Something for everyone
LEGO DUPLO and City cater to the youngest of LEGO builders, although that's not to say there's nothing there to interest more mature collectors as well. LEGO City 60445 F1 Truck with RB20 & AMR24 might be more geared towards play, but that hefty truck certainly packs quite the visual punch when on display.
That said, if bite-sized detail is what you're after, LEGO Speed Champions certainly delivered on that. All ten teams got a Speed Champions car with its own building method, unique details, and of course sponsor stickers. Whether displayed solo or as a grid of 10, the Formula 1 Speed Champions wave was one of the highlights of the year.
For those really wanting to invest, LEGO Technic welcomed 42206 Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 and 42207 Ferrari SF-24, both priced at £199.99. Mimicking the scale and size of the previously released 42171 Mercedes-AMG F1 W14 E Performance, these higher investment sets focused on the top-tier teams with long-running fanbases, where other themes made sure to include every team on the grid.
The LEGO Group also neatly sidestepped the issue of not being able to feature named drivers due to production constraints by returning to legacy drivers in the LEGO Icons theme. This wasn't a new style of set for 2025, but it's certainly an effective one. Priced in the mid-range, 10330 McLaren MP4/4 & Ayrton Senna and 10353 Williams Racing FW14B & Nigel Mansell tap into an older audience with an appreciation for Formula 1 history.
It's all in a name
Still, the presence of Senna and Mansell as minifigures doesn't wholly remove the frustration for some fans in not being able to collect minifigures of modern drivers. Practically, it makes sense. The grid line-up changes all the time, and minifigure designs take months, if not over a year, to develop from start to finish. That's simply not enough time to create minifigures for modern drivers, who could switch teams or leave the sport altogether unpredictably.
That's felt more than ever in 71049 F1 Collectible Race Cars, the motorsport answer to a LEGO CMF series. Instead of minifigures, there are 12 cars to collect, one for each team and two covering Formula 1 and F1 Academy. While they make for some fun builds, they didn't debut to the same level of excitement as previous series that included minifigures.
...is that it?
While the LEGO Formula 1 cars have been recreated in virtually every way imaginable, the partnership hasn't really gone beyond that. When we first speculated about potential sets that could come out, we had ideas for fantastical LEGO DREAMZzz sets inspired by the world of motorsports, LEGO Art sets based on iconic tracks, or LEGO City sets that expand beyond the grid.
Even digging into some of the more niche areas of Formula 1 might have broken up the endless car releases. For example, the safety car could have been included as a Speed Champions or City set, expanding the focus beyond the main event of the cars and drivers themselves.
Now that the first year has been and gone, the initial product ranges feel slightly lacking in creativity. A strong foundation has been set, but in rather predictable ways. For a company like the LEGO Group that's all about thinking outside of the box, it falls flat.
Admittedly, rumours for 2026 seem to suggest that we're due more diversity down the line, with LEGO Formula 1 helmets said to be coming next year. That would certainly be a welcome change from the cars-at-every-scale approach we've had so far, as well as a way to tap into driver identities that have been sorely lacking.
Ultimately, 2025 seems to just be the beginning for LEGO Formula 1. Perhaps the partnership has started fairly tame to lay the groundwork, only to expand into more exciting and creative areas down the line.
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