Oracle Red Bull Racing RB20 (42206): the F1 car that starts at the back
Open bag one of this set and you build the rear suspension, not the front. New Elementary built the RB20 and the Ferrari SF-24 (42207) side by side and found the two cars go together in different orders: the Ferrari starts at the front axle, the Red Bull at the back, and the nose goes on in bag 6 here rather than bag 9. It is the fourth of LEGO’s 1:8 Technic Formula 1 cars, modelled on the car Max Verstappen took his fourth title in, and at 1,639 pieces it has almost 300 more parts than the Ferrari that launched the same day.
It is in the Brick Club library. No member has written this one up yet, so what follows comes from the reviews and from Brickset’s data: what the car does in the hand, how the ten bags split, and the handful of things that look like mistakes but are the design.
Why this one matters
Two parts in this box are the ones Technic builders had waited for. The studded engine cylinder had been in the range since 1990 and looks out of place in a studless model. This set and the Ferrari introduce its replacement, a smooth cylinder with no studs, with a new 1 x 5 x 3 beam that holds a V-bank of them in line. Six cylinders in the box. Huw at Brickset called the pair about twenty years overdue; New Elementary’s tobymac noted the same pistons still fit and the mould is otherwise much the same, but the engine looks cleaner for it.
The suspension parts are new too: a moulded 7 x 8 wishbone, eight of them, a longer 1 x 8 link, and 2L beams with a towball and a towball socket that let the springs lie horizontally inside the chassis. That is where the Red Bull earns its Technic credentials. Beyond the suspension, New Elementary’s verdict was that there is not much going on in the Technic sense, and Brickset put it at not a particularly long or complex build, but a satisfying one.
Then the recolours. The Ferrari has one part in a new colour. The Red Bull has 40 parts across 12 elements in new colours, mostly dark blue and yellow, including the 3 x 13 and 5 x 13 tapered panels and a dozen dark blue cams. If you build in dark blue, this box is a parts pack. The designer is Milan Reindl.
What it actually does
Everything is worked by hand; there are no motors. Two of the write-ups below are launch news rather than build reviews, so where a source only lists a function I have said what it does and stopped.
Not a gearbox in the Chiron sense. Between the engine and the rear axle sits a small switch-operated gearbox built from the new engine cylinder and the 1 x 5 x 3 beam frame. New Elementary counts two positions; Brickset calls it two-speed plus neutral, and Jay’s Brick Blog counts three positions with one of them neutral. The rear bodywork lifts off, held by two Technic axles only, and under it you find the lever. In neutral the wheels roll without turning the engine; in gear, rolling the car drives the pistons. Huw thought it a bit pointless with the control buried inside, but it adds almost nothing to the piece count, and it is the one function you have to go looking for.
The engine sits behind the seat under the removable cover, with the MGU-H on top. Roll the car in gear and the six pistons pump while the MGU-H, a brick-built black sub-assembly, rotates alongside them. It is a standard Technic engine in what it does, but the first built from the new studless cylinders, so it looks tidier than the V6 in the older F1 cars. Drive comes up through a rear differential, visible if you turn the car over.
There is a gear on top of the air intake behind the driver. Turn it and the front wheels turn, and so does the steering wheel in the cockpit, which works on its own too. One thing to know before you start: because of the gearing, the steering wheel cannot sit perfectly straight when the front wheels are. Jay’s Brick Blog was surprised the designers left it. It is not something you have built wrong.
All four corners are sprung. The front uses pull-rods, as the real car does, slotted between the new wishbone pieces; the rear uses push-rods. In both cases the springs lie horizontally and are linked to the 2L towball beams by an axle. At the back you can see two red springs from underneath. At the front they are buried inside the chassis and almost out of sight. Press down on the body and the whole car bounces, which Jay’s Brick Blog found a lot of fun.
The upper flap of the rear wing hinges open to copy the drag reduction system. It is manual: a black Technic pin is the activator and there is no linkage to the cockpit. What the Red Bull has that the earlier Technic F1 cars did not is a 1L beam at each end of the flap as a stopper, so the wing holds a fixed position when closed. The Bybit lettering across the flap is split over four stickers.
How the build goes
Ten numbered paper bags, plus a box for the tyres and an unnumbered bag of the large and odd parts; the instructions and both sticker sheets come in a paper folder. Jay’s Brick Blog walks the bags in order and Brickset confirms the first four are the chassis. Nobody gives hours, and the reviewers differ on the feel: Brickset found it not particularly long or complex, Bricks vs Blocks calls it a dense, long build. Two or three evenings is my estimate, more if you sticker as you go.
Rear suspension, engine and frame
Unlike the Ferrari, this one starts at the back. Bag 1 is the rear suspension with the push-rods and the two red horizontal springs. Bag 2 adds the V6 on its new cylinders, the MGU-H and more of the frame, with the two-position switch between engine and axle. Before you leave bag 2, turn the rear axle by hand in every position: pistons moving in either gear, still in neutral. This is the last time it is easy to get at.
Front end and the join
Bag 3 is the front steering and suspension sub-assembly: the wishbones, pull-rods, 1 x 8 links and towball beams, with the springs tucked inside where you will not see them again. Bag 4 grows it and attaches it to the rear unit; New Elementary describes the car as two sections joined into one long chassis. Once joined, work the knob and check the front wheels and steering wheel move together. The seat sits low in the chassis on this car.
Underfloor, nose and front wing
Bag 5 is the underfloor. Look for the black fan blade pieces at the front: they are the jagged entry to the Venturi tunnels, and the cleverest bit of shaping in the set. Bag 6 is the nose panelling and the front wing, built from three overlapping sections with shading on the stickers to suggest the real car’s fourth. The sides of the nose are left as a gap where the real car is yellow; that is the design.
Rear wing, cockpit and halo
Bag 7 is the rear wing with the hinged DRS flap and its stoppers. Bag 8 panels the cockpit and adds the halo, two flexible tubes pushed through a Technic beam that carries the smallest sticker in the set, the Tag Heuer logo. The mirrors use a couple of System pieces for their shape, and the seat is Technic beams with a brick-built headrest.
Sidepods, rear bodywork and wheels
Bag 9 finishes the sidepods, with the Oracle sticker on each and the overbite where the top of the opening overhangs the bottom; panels line the underside so there is no hole, which the Ferrari has. Bag 10 is the removable bodywork behind the intake and the four wheels. The tyres carry printed red Pirelli lettering, and all four are the same 81.6 x 44 size.
Nobody at Brick Club has built this one yet, so these come from the reviewers. Most are things that look wrong and are not.
- Two big sticker sheets. Jay’s found most of them fairly easy to apply. Huw’s advice is to add them all, because the model does not look right without them, and New Elementary built bare and agreed once they went on. The Bybit wording on the rear wing is four stickers that have to read as one word; line those up with the flap closed.
- The steering wheel will not sit dead straight. With the front wheels straight the wheel is slightly off. It is the gearing, not a tooth out of place. Do not strip the column looking for it.
- The front wheel deflectors turn with the wheels. The real car’s do not, and Jay’s Brick Blog notes neither the Mercedes W14 nor the Ferrari SF-24 does this. It is how the set is built.
- Blue pins showing in the round intake. There is no panel missing.
- Test the gearbox before the cover goes on. The switch lives under the removable rear bodywork. Check both positions at the end of bag 2 and again after the join.
On the shelf
Brickset measures it at 63 cm long, 24 wide and 14 high; New Elementary’s tape said 64. Either way it is longer than the McLaren P1 (42172), which has over 2,200 more parts, because an F1 car is mostly length, and it needs a shelf to itself. The dark blue is a touch lighter than the real car but the closest LEGO had, and it sets off the red and yellow of the stickers; Huw thought it a welcome change from Ferrari red and Mercedes black. Almost all of the bodywork shaping is done with Technic parts rather than System.
Two things the reviewers would change. The tyres are the same size all round, 40 mm wide, where the rears should be about 52 mm; Huw called it inexcusable on a flagship and Jay’s Brick Blog a fundamental flaw. And the rear wing stanchions stand vertical where the real ones lean outward. Display it with the rear cover off if you want the engine on show, or with the DRS flap open.
It is the one for you if you follow F1, or if you want a big dark blue display piece without a whole weekend on the chassis. Brickset found the build not particularly long or complex, the new suspension and engine parts are worth handling, and the finished car is long enough to make an impression. It is not one for a member chasing a gearbox; the switch is a simple two-speed affair and lives under a cover. Two or three evenings, plus one for stickers. Test the gearbox at bag 2, and do not go looking for the reason the steering wheel sits a few degrees off; there is not one you can fix.
If you like this one, try
The other Technic race cars in the library. The Ferrari SF-24 is the Red Bull’s twin from the same day, sharing every new mould except the inverted side panels, and the McLaren is where the 1:8 F1 series started.
The Red Bull RB20 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.