[MOC] 2024 F1 cars (Original designs)

[MR Swordfish]

With all the F1 activity in the Speed Champions scale, I decided it might be a fun time to design some 2022+ era cars myself. I wanted to see what really streamlined designs with very accurate wheels might look like. A comparison with one of the real cars is at the bottom of the post.

^ The Mercedes W15, the Ferrari SF-24, and the Aston Martin AMR24

^ The Ferrari SF-24 is probably my favorite here. Most of the stickers are from HobbyBricks, but I had to print the newer "HP" sponsors myself

^ Some of you may have noticed that the wheels are not official LEGO. These are F1-style wheels produced by HobbyBricks, because I'm tired of how official wheels limit these builds. F1 cars have big slick tyres with wider rears (a huge part of the visuals) but LEGO still doesn't make anything like that for minifig scale... or hardly at all. I'm having fun pretending I'm an official LEGO designer, who just convinced the company to produce these prototype wheels for new sets. I hope you are having fun with me.

^ This shot is a bit grainy due to being cropped in

^ Here's the Aston Martin AMR24 model next to the same real F1 photo from the back of the new Speed Champions box

^ These models are all the exact same length as the new Speed Champions McLaren F1 car, putting them in the same scale

^ By building in green, I was able to use stickers from this year's Aston Martin Speed Champions set, along with my own custom "14" stickers

^ The Mercedes W15 uses mostly official stickers from the Speed Champions W12

^ All of the wheel covers are actual LEGO parts

^ I was able to imitate the complex nose livery by making my own silver stickers. With the silver placed atop dark turquoise parts, you get colored "pinstripes" on either side. You could also brick-build the nose livery, as the parts do come in silver metallic, but this would lose the turquoise accents. Ultimately, I went with silver stickers, because I needed to add sponsor logos anyway

^ All of these models have detailed F1-style steering wheels

^ The front suspension details are very rigid, and the axle is well anchored to the body, because I dislike when this is a filmsy area on F1 builds. The wheels do spin freely, though

^ Rear suspension details, again with free spinning wheels

^ Rear diffuser and brake light. The floor of the car has studs facing down, and the "LEGO" embossing sometimes brushes the ground as the car rolls. I'm choosing to say that this is the ground effect aero scraping the track

^ My #1 priority with the entire rear wing assembly was to get the accurate angular 3D shape. It ended up being a solid chunk of bricks, but I just love how "correct" the shape is, as it helps convey the current F1 regulations

^ The front wing is the real fragile part of the build. It could be reinforced with plates underneath, connected to the main body, but this simply wouldn't look as nice/accurate. I'm displaying these models, not playing with them

^ The 3D shaping of the sidepods was a huge area of effort in this design, as this is a complex shape on modern F1 cars. Despite being mounted at a sloping angle, the sidepods are connected to the body via multiple SNOT bricks, without any odd stress on the parts. They don't pop off easily or change position; It is a rigid connection. I'm very proud of this

^ Not only do the sidepods have streamlined shaping in profile view, they also have a perfectly smooth curve when viewed overhead. The accuracy of the shape on multiple axis' makes the car look right from every angle

^ Now comes the bad news, which is that these cars do not hold minifigures. Instead, they require "Driver Body" pieces from the old "Drome Racers" LEGO theme. You could modify the cars to hold figures instead, but it would be at the expense of "ideal" styling, which was my priority

^ Regardless, here's "Charles Leclerc" outside his Ferrari SF-24

^ "Fernando Alonso" with the AMR24

^ "George Russell" with the W15

^ As a last addition, for display, I built a simple podium, and added "Martin Brundle" plus some other guy who is probably important. We may never know

^ Compared to the real SF-24. I'm very happy that the model looks similarly accurate in side view as it does overhead. This seems to be one of the hardest things to do with the modern F1 cars in this scale

Thanks so much for viewing! Building instructions + Stud.io files/parts lists for each car are available for $1 USD each on my store [Link]. Alternate models of the Mercedes (brick-built silver nose livery) and the Aston Martin (dark turquoise instead of green) are included with their respective cars.

Instructions for the simple podium are also included in a three car "Grand Prix" bundle. Keep in mind the special F1 style wheels are only available through HobbyBricks, also linked on my store.

Edited July 16, 2024 by MR Swordfish

[BrickMonkeyMOCs]

16 hours ago, MR Swordfish said:

With all the F1 activity in the Speed Champions scale, I decided to finally tackle the 2022+ era cars. I present the the Mercedes W15, the Ferrari SF-24, and the Aston Martin AMR24:

Excellent work. While I would prefer a hollow rear wing and cars that fit a minifig, I can appreciate why you've sacrificed those here as you get a realistically low position for the driver's helmet, and very accurate overall shaping. I particularly like what you've achieved with the sidepods, and it's very interesting to see the difference made by properly sized front and rear tires. The custom sticker work is also impressive, especially on the Ferrari.

[MR Swordfish]

1 hour ago, BrickMonkeyMOCs said:

Excellent work. While I would prefer a hollow rear wing and cars that fit a minifig, I can appreciate why you've sacrificed those here as you get a realistically low position for the driver's helmet, and very accurate overall shaping. I particularly like what you've achieved with the sidepods, and it's very interesting to see the difference made by properly sized front and rear tires. The custom sticker work is also impressive, especially on the Ferrari.

Thank you! Indeed, I feel the cars could be easily modified to suit other preferences, but I love seeing what's possible with shaping as top priority. That's essentially why I was willing to try some unofficial wheels, too. Definitely a glimpse into what might be possible if LEGO would offer similar parts, not just the one-size slicks of this year. I bought wider rear tyres for my official McLaren Mp4/4 for the same reason (from the same company). Open wheel cars derive a lot of their visible proportions from the wheels, naturally. Those sidepods are my favorite part of the 2024 F1 models, though

Edited June 26, 2024 by MR Swordfish

[Shiva]

Nice cars :)

[Space Coyote]

You nailed all 3! I appreciate all the detailed pics and write ups. These almost look like Hot Wheels at a glance because of how solid they're built. I actually like the choice to use those driver bodies, very cool!

[LEGO Train 12 Volts]

Fantastic models and awesome job on those cars! 

Ferrari is my favorite! 

[MehmetDaSultan]

Nice wheels.

[MR Swordfish]

On 6/26/2024 at 9:13 PM, Space Coyote said:

You nailed all 3! I appreciate all the detailed pics and write ups. These almost look like Hot Wheels at a glance because of how solid they're built. I actually like the choice to use those driver bodies, very cool!

Thank you! The Hot Wheels compliment is very kind. I actually do take some inspiration from the mindset of a Hot Wheels designer I once read an interview from, who said that if they have to stylize a car a bit, they try to go in a direction that makes it look "cooler", especially because cars can look odd when scaled down anyway (compared to how they look full size in person). There was no way to do these models with 100% accurate proportions and features, so I generally picked whichever options I found that looked the most aesthetically pleasing overall

Edited July 16, 2024 by MR Swordfish

[FGMatt]

On 6/25/2024 at 7:05 AM, MR Swordfish said:

 

Just a thought - would 61409 (Slope 18 2 x 1 x 2/3 with Grille) in place of the curved slope pieces behind the cockpit allow you to include the vent details?

 

[MR Swordfish]

4 hours ago, FGMatt said:

Just a thought - would 61409 (Slope 18 2 x 1 x 2/3 with Grille) in place of the curved slope pieces behind the cockpit allow you to include the vent details?

I tried it, but I wasn't fond of how poorly reinforced the clips for the "halo" end up being, because you're forced to use 1x1 plates with clip instead of 1x2 plates with clip + the curved slope reinforcing. Could certainly build one that way if you prefer, though! The flex hose is just being bent pretty extreme here, and needs to be connected to something pretty solid to make it behave imo

Edited July 17, 2024 by MR Swordfish

[Paul B Technic]

I really love the level of detail in these, thanks for sharing.

[MR Swordfish]

On 7/22/2024 at 12:29 AM, Paul B Technic said:

I really love the level of detail in these, thanks for sharing.

Thank you! I love trying to balance fine detail and overall look for models like this.

Edited August 28, 2024 by MR Swordfish