The first one, next to the cars that followed
Three years separate this car from the Red Bull RB20 (42206) and the Ferrari SF-24 (42207), and all three are in our library. This post measures the McLaren against them. The McLaren on its own, bag by bag, is in the main 42141 spotlight.
Short version: it is the simplest of the three and the longest, the later cars added parts rather than functions, and none of them fixed the tyres.
What the 2022 box is, and what 2025 changed
Huw at Brickset noted it had been over 15 years since the last licensed Technic F1 car, the Ferrari F1 Racer (8674) of 2006. Of 1,432 pieces, New Elementary counted nine gears, and that included the differential and the rack; Hothbricks counted just over 530 pins. No gearbox. Engine, suspension and steering, the bare minimum for a Technic car in New Elementary’s words.
The 2025 cars, from our RB20 spotlight rather than the McLaren reviews. The Red Bull is 1,639 pieces at £199.99 and keeps this layout exactly: rear differential, V6 behind the seat, flat springs, a small wheel under the halo, a wing flap moved by hand. It adds parts: a studless engine cylinder, moulded wishbones and towball beams, a two-position switch LEGO calls a gearbox, a steering knob on the intake, printed tyres. The Ferrari shares all of that at 1,361 pieces.
One number to hold loosely. Our product page calls this 1:8, as LEGO does the later cars. Huw measured 65 cm against the real car’s 5 m and made it about 1:13. The Red Bull is 63 cm at approximately 1:8. On a shelf they are the same size.
What it actually does, and what the Red Bull does differently
Four short entries; the full McLaren spotlight has the long versions. The Red Bull side of each comes from the RB20 spotlight. Everything on both cars is worked by hand.
Roll the car and six pistons pump behind the cockpit, on show through a hole in the bodywork. New Elementary counted the drivetrain: rear wheels, open differential, one 20T gear, engine. The differential lock in the press release never made the model. The Red Bull adds a two-position switch under a lift-off cover so the pistons can be disconnected, and that is the whole difference.
No knob here. Steering is the small wheel under the halo, down a long axle to a rack in the nose. The Brothers Brick found the halo makes it hard for adult hands, and with the wheel centred the front wheels are not. The Red Bull adds a knob on the intake that turns both, and its wheel sits off straight too. On the McLaren the offset is avoidable; see below.
Both ends are push-rod with the springs lying flat: two in the rear axle, two under the orange nose. Hothbricks called it very rigid, four compressed shock absorbers installed horizontally. The Red Bull swaps the front to pull-rods on new wishbones and towball beams. Same idea, newer parts.
The top element of the rear wing tilts to copy the drag reduction system. Huw called it hand of God: no cockpit control, and at this scale there never could be. If you have read that the McLaren has no DRS, that is half right: the flap moves, nothing inside the car moves it. The Red Bull adds a 1L beam at each end to hold its flap closed.
How the build goes, in three moves
Eleven bags, ten numbered 1 to 4, one unnumbered bag of long parts and rims, three sticker sheets, a 320-page book. That Brick Site says 10 to 12 hours, Hothbricks quickly dispatched, the member build post four to five. The Red Bull runs to ten bags in the same order: back, front, skin.
The chassis, which is all of the mechanism
Bags 1: rear differential, two horizontal springs, the long frame from the unnumbered bag as backbone, the V6 on top. Bags 2: the steering rack in its orange 5 x 7 frame, front springs that slide into a groove and lock in slightly compressed, the smallest stickers, seat and wheel, the join. Test everything here: roll the rear axle, turn the wheel, press each corner.
The skin
The tail in System and Technic parts, air-inlet fins on pneumatic elements, the nose in the tapered panels from the Sián (42115), a 3 x 19 rotor blade as the fin. New Elementary: after the cold chills of bags 2, a breeze. The orange sidepod is layered panels with gaps between them; the Red Bull lines its sidepod underside so there is no hole.
Orange, stickers, wheels
Orange panels loaded with sponsor stickers, the airbox from bars and round plates, mirrors as bare axles with no bush, then the wheels: rears easy, fronts awkward. The round Pirelli stickers on the wheel covers are the last job and the one that matters most; the 2025 cars replaced them with printed tyres.
The full list of five is in the main spotlight. These three decide how it looks and steers.
- Mesh the 12-tooth steering gear one tooth over in bags 2. New Elementary lined it up square and got a wheel that sits to one side with the wheels straight, because the steering runs through another pair of gears. Afterwards it is too buried to reach.
- Wheel cover stickers dead central. A little off and, New Elementary says, they wobble as the car rolls and look terrible. Plate flat on the table.
- The wing is drawn rotated, and the Darktrace name has a gap. The next step makes the wing obvious. The Brothers Brick tried to close the sticker gap and called the result fair, not great.
On the shelf, and next to the others
Brickset measures it at 65 x 27 x 13 cm; GamesRadar notes a bigger footprint than the Ferrari Daytona SP3 (42143) with well under half the pieces, and the three F1 cars together make a grid the best part of two metres. Huw’s line was that it looks great from a distance and the problems show close up: treaded Tumbler tyres, all one width, a fault the 2025 cars share. The rain light and airbox tip come off when it is picked up, so lift it by the floor.
The member who built it
One McLaren has come back with photos, written up in the member build post from November 2025. That post puts the build at four to five hours and calls it the F1 kit for someone who wants a real Technic build without a 3,000-piece flagship. They are the only member photos we hold, so the main spotlight uses them too.
Have the McLaren sent for the shortest route to a big F1 car on the shelf, if you do not mind a drivetrain of one differential and one gear. Have the Red Bull sent instead for the newer parts, the printed tyres and something under the engine cover; it costs a couple more evenings and nothing in difficulty. Not both back to back. Either way, sticker as you go, and mesh the steering gear one tooth over before the nose closes.
If you like this one, try
The two 2025 F1 cars compared here (RB20, SF-24), the McLaren with a real gearbox, and the Ferrari whose footprint this car beats.
The McLaren Formula 1 Race Car is in the library
Technic Fan gets up to 6 kits a year, Master Builder up to 12. Delivery both ways is included and the prepaid return label is in the box.