LEGO Group’s senior undertaking supervisor Lukáš Horák has revealed that the corporate spent 8,344 hours to construct the distinctive, spectacular McLaren automotive that the Woking-based F1 outfit’s British driver Lando Norris took to the Silverstone observe.
Lando Norris is used to punching in laps round his residence circuit, however this was a singular alternative in a really totally different sort of automotive than he’s used to as he took behind the wheel of a McLaren automotive that has been comprised of LEGO Technic parts.
The McLaren P1 has been designed and constructed by the LEGO Group and McLaren Automotive. Made up of 342,817 LEGO Technic parts and a totally electrical motor, that is the primary LEGO large construct able to steering and driving a whole lap of a racetrack. The automotive has been in-built a four-stage course of over 17 days by 82 technicians.
“For us, I have to say, it was among the finest tasks we’ve got presumably labored on,” says Lukáš Horák, Senior Challenge Supervisor in Mannequin Manufacturing, LEGO Group. Horák led a 23-person group, comprising specialists from design, engineering and constructing from the LEGO Group and McLaren Automotive, who spent 8,344 hours on this undertaking.
The drivable LEGO Technic McLaren P1 has been a very long time within the making, with discussions initially starting within the Autumn of 2023 between the 2 groups earlier than growth and building started in January 2024.
That is LEGO Group’s third drivable automotive, however it’s by far probably the most refined. Not one of the others may tackle corners, nor may they’ve coped with the bumps round Silverstone’s observe.
The LEGO Technic P1 is constructed out of 393 various kinds of LEGO Technic parts, used for the extra superior LEGO fashions. They’re extra versatile and sturdy than conventional LEGO bricks – however completely appropriate – and can be utilized to include motors and pneumatic parts.
“There wasn’t any glue concerned, the entire bricks are linked, which made it extra difficult to construct a automotive that might survive a full lap,” says Lukáš. “I’ve to say, this mannequin and the know-how we developed to attach the bricks survived rather well.”
When Horák and his group started the event stage in January, they began through the use of their 3D software program to check the P1 and work out the right way to replicate the design in LEGO bricks. In the meantime, the engineers on the undertaking have been working alongside McLaren Automotive to provide the automotive’s metal building, which might kind the fundamental chassis that the bricks could be constructed round, and the automotive’s entrance and rear axles.
“We now have two sorts of bricks,” Lukáš continues. “So, there’s the LEGO Technic core, which is the development out of the LEGO Technic parts, after which we’ve got the LEGO Technic pores and skin, which is actually the physique of the mannequin.” It’s the LEGO Technic pores and skin – a community of interconnected triangles linked to the inside construction of the mannequin through a community of actuators – that permits Lukáš and his group to recreate the curved form of the P1. “The LEGO Technic core is firmly linked to a metal building, after which the pores and skin is linked to that.”
Weighing roughly 1220kg and able to speeds of as much as 50kph, the automotive is powered by an electrical motor consisting of LEGO Technic Perform batteries and an electrical automotive battery. Mixed with working suspension, brakes, a steering wheel, and the identical lights as the actual supercar, the P1 can journey additional than every other LEGO mannequin.
It doesn’t embrace a windscreen, nonetheless, that means that Norris loved a “good little breeze” on his drive of the 5.891km tour of Silverstone, which he described as “Superior. It was tremendous good. Thanks, LEGO [Group], for the chance, it has been superb.”
“We requested Lando for his ideas after he accomplished his lap and he mentioned that it was similar to driving a traditional automotive, which we have been fairly shocked by,” Lukáš says. “I additionally requested him if he used the brake in any respect in the course of the lap and he mentioned no – though we do know they work. He regarded actually positively shocked, I have to say.
“The chance to be with McLaren on that iconic circuit and to fulfill Lando, we’re actually happy with that and to have achieved all the pieces with none points. We’re actually grateful for the chance.”
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