Lego’s master builders have “constructed smaller, faster, nimbler ‘minicars’” for Silverstone’s driver parade ahead of Sunday’s F1 British GP, according to Laurence Edmondson of ESPN.com. The plan for Silverstone follows the success of last year’s Miami Grand Prix drivers’ parade -- when F1 drivers were “let loose in 10 full-size Lego F1 cars.” Last year’s two-seaters, which saw teammates sit one behind the other in a shared car made of Lego, “have been replaced by 22 individual go-karts (one for each driver), complete with electric motors, plastic bumpers and roll-hoops.” Each minicar has been constructed from “over 28,300 bricks by a team of 20 designers, engineers and builders at Lego’s factory in Kladno, Czechia.” Built on top of a “specially designed steel structure, the bricks are arranged to reflect the individual liveries and logos of F1’s 11 teams,” and are “capable of a top speed of just under 18 mph” (ESPN.com, 7/2).
FAN FAVORITE: THE ATHLETIC’s Luke Smith wrote last year’s Miami GP “descended into a chaotic crash-fest, leaving bricks all over the track before the race.” The drivers, who had to share each cockpit with their teammate, “loved it.” It was a “viral hit” for Lego and F1, which, according to Lego, “generated more than 24 billion views across social media channels.” Nobody could have “foreseen its popularity” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/2).
