Here’s a pop-trivia question for you. Who is the biggest tyre manufacturer in the world – i.e., who makes the most? I’ll give you a second to think about it. No doubt many of you know the answer already, if you’re reading this. The answer is, of course, LEGO. And after so long at the top of the tyre tree, they are finally getting involved in the real-world automotive sphere with a surprise partnership with F1 Academy, as announced the other day.
This represents the culmination of a big year for LEGO and Formula One. 20 sets have so far been released across five themes, including an entire wave of Speed Champions sets. LEGO has been a major presence at F1 races, most notably the Miami, British and Las Vegas Grands Prix. But even then, this latest announcement surprised many, including me. It got me thinking about LEGO’s relationship with IP partners, bringing in new fans, driving positive change in both motorsport and the world at large, and how to do a brand tie-in properly. And I got a bit carried away – so enjoy this long, rambly read!
How did we get here?
It’s no secret that LEGO has been making a big push towards licensed sets. Huw of Brickset fame did a fantastic analysis a few years ago on this phenomenon in the Technic theme, specifically. But it’s spread far and wide; now, brands as diverse as Nintendo, John Deere, Paramount, and Airbus make up part of LEGO’s portfolio. So with F1’s increased popularity in the years following Liberty Media’s acquisition of the sport, it was little surprise to see them join forces with the world’s biggest toy company.
What was a surprise was just how far the partnership went. Getting some sets was a given – after all, LEGO F1 cars have existed since the 80s, and even officially licensed ones first appeared 20 years ago. But we got loads. Every F1 team represented in Speed Champions and City. Tiny blind-box cars. Massive Technic models. Even Duplo got involved. It’s almost too much F1 – and indeed many feel that way about it now. But it can’t be said that LEGO hasn’t tried to cater to every demographic with an interest in the sport.
And then we had the ‘brand activations’. The first of these came at the Miami Grand Prix parade lap. For the uninitiated, this involves the F1 drivers being driven slowly around the track and waving to the crowd; often a fairly mundane affair. But in Miami, the cars they drove were made of LEGO – and the drivers were in them. Mayhem ensued.
Then, at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, the drivers who finished first, second and third were presented with trophies made of LEGO (they did also get non-LEGO ones too, although they weren’t distributed during the podium ceremony). A similar trick will be used at the Las Vegas Grand Prix this weekend: this time, the F1 Academy race winners will be presented with LEGO victory wreaths that will no doubt put 10340 Wreath to shame.
Brand Activation 101
I loathe the term ‘brand activation’. To me, it’s marketing speak for ‘advert’. And even as someone who writes for a brand-specific blog, I’m generally averse to the way brands behave on social media. But I have to admit that the way LEGO and F1 have gone about their activations has really impressed me.
Let’s start with the Miami parade. It’s no secret that some athletes see media duties as a bit of a chore. That isn’t to say F1 drivers are media-averse, but the parade lap is not usually the place where they get to have fun. Whether by accident or by design, the slow-speed chaos around the Miami circuit, combined with the absurdity that is driving a life-sized car made out of a toy, was a great watch.
Every single driver looked like they were having a blast. Even Fernando Alonso, who at 45 years old is the closest thing F1 has to a grumpy old man (at least among the drivers), was cracking a smile. And that was the genius of it: it showed what LEGO should be all about – just having fun. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in the serious side of the hobby, but sometimes you just need to crash some LEGO cars together. Even multi-thousand-piece ones.
If Miami was made to be remembered, LEGO’s presence at the British Grand Prix was memorable for reasons no-one could have predicted. After a belter of a race (Silverstone always produces belters), German driver Nico Hulkenberg claimed the first F1 podium of his career. It had been a long time coming: he previously held the unwanted record for the most F1 races without a top-three finish (239). And having waited so long to turn it into the slightly less unwanted record of most F1 races before a top-three finish, his reward (and Sauber’s too, for whom this was the first podium since 2012) was… A toy?!
McLaren driver and race runner-up Oscar Piastri cheekily asked Hulkenberg how it felt to wait 15 years only to receive a trophy that could be “pulled apart and probably bought next week”. But Nico saw the funny side too, before making the wholesome remark that his daughter could play with it once he was done with it. Once again – fun all round. We never did get to buy the trophy, though, Oscar… Care to share the instructions?
The F1 to AFOL pipeline
Warning! The following section contains lots of anecdotal evidence. But I hope you’ll agree that the broader point still stands.
Part of the reason I care so much about motorsport is that I have skin in the game. My day job involves working for a team at the top of motorsport (albeit not in F1). And LEGO being my other passion, I take every opportunity to extol the virtues of the humble brick. Results have varied from mild amusement that I write about children’s toys on the internet, to shocked ‘oh you really do have LEGO everywhere huh’ reactions whenever guests come round.
F1 x LEGO has therefore proved to be a surprisingly easy way to get people into the hobby. One colleague came across the Speed Champions F1 cars ahead of a plans-free weekend, and picked one up on a whim. This proved to be quite the gateway drug – several more cars followed, first from Speed Champions and then Technic. Our latest conversation was whether or not to buy 10318 Concorde over Black Friday weekend. I did warn them it could prove to be an expensive hobby.
That’s not to say it needs to be expensive, though. Other colleagues have re-discovered LEGO through its work with F1, only to balk at the price of some of the sets. Frankly, I can’t blame them – the so-called IP tax is an unfortunate side-effect of LEGO’s increase in brand tie-ins. But that’s where sites like Rebrickable come in, and this has become one of the first things I show people who are interested in getting into LEGO. The joy of it is that you can rebuild it into whatever you want. Want to make a hypercar or rally car instead of an F1 car? They’re on there!
The F1 Academy tie-in has also proved a popular way to bring new fans to the world of brick-building (my partner especially, is even more excited than I am by it). Content creator and F1 business insider Tiggy, known on Instagram as @itspaddockproject, also drew my attention to an interesting fact: apparently, the current F1 LEGO sets are among the most popular ones with girls. The ways people get brought into the LEGO community are as diverse as the people within it, and the more of us there are, the merrier!
Driving change (but like, for real)
That brings us to last week, and the announcement that Esmee Kosterman will drive a LEGO-branded car in next season’s F1 Academy. As a life-long fan of both motorsport and LEGO, I don’t think I ever imagined I would see LEGO branding on a real life race car, let alone in such a big way. There’s a team called LEGO Racing! And it’s real! It’s a real thing! This is, in and of itself, very cool.
But it goes deeper than that. Despite the fact it’s one of the few sports where, in theory, men and women can directly compete against each other, motorsport remains a massively male-dominated field. Of the 781 drivers to have started a Grand Prix since the series’ inauguration in 1950, just two have been women: Maria Theresa de Filippis (in 1958 and 1959) and Lella Lombardi (from 1974 to 1976). Additionally, Divina Galicia, Desire Wilson and Giovanna Amati were entered for 7 races between them, without qualifying. (Starting a race wasn’t always a given back in the day.)
Now as then, female participation in motorsport diminishes rapidly the further up the ‘ladder’ you go, starting from karting and through series such as Super Formula, Indy NXT or the more conventional F4/F3/F2. This isn’t for lack of ability as much as it is lack of opportunities. You think LEGO’s an expensive hobby? Try racing cars. Even a season in junior series like F4 can incur costs running well into six figures. For various reasons, many of them frankly unfair, sponsorship for female drivers is hard to come by.
That’s where series like F1 Academy, and W Series before it, come in: to try and redress the balance. It gives female racers who may not otherwise have had the opportunity elsewhere to gain experience and continue honing their craft, ideally acting as a springboard for the rest of their careers. Results from that last point have been patchy – several former drivers like Jamie Chadwick or Abbi Pulling now hold roles as development or simulator drivers for teams across F1, Formula e, the World Endurance Championship and so on, but few have progressed to full-time race seats in categories further up. But that’s only after two years, and the end result is still a net positive.
And finally, we can bring it back around to LEGO. Just to reiterate: motorsport is expensive. The F1 Academy cars are no different, and all 20 entries this year are supported by the 10 F1 constructors. Adding an extra car to that grid is no mean feat, even with the support of F1A itself. We’re not privy to the details to F1/F1A and LEGO’s licensing deal, so it’s impossible to know just how much is being contributed by either party. We’re not sure if LEGO is directly funding the LEGO Racing entry, or just lending their name to it.
To be cynical for a second, neither party would be doing this if it didn’t benefit them. But this isn’t a zero-sum game. Whether it’s LEGO’s money or pulling power that’s facilitating an extra F1 Academy entry, it still represents a pretty serious commitment.
LEGO can quite justifiably be criticised for some of their product policies, ranging from ever-increasing prices to sets so limited it verges on extortion. This, however, is exactly the kind of thing I would want The LEGO Group to use their branding might for: bringing positive change to the world. I am delighted to see it come to fruition.