At the end of last year, somewhere in Billund, Denmark, a Lego designer faced a very specific problem. He’d spent the better part of two years building a helmet set for one of the most popular racing drivers on the planet. Everything was finalised, but, then Lando Norris went and won the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, resulting in big changes to the upcoming Lego set.
“We had quite a long meeting where we were like, we need to change it,” says Daniel Meehan, the Creative Lead of Lego F1. “We’re not recreating an object from the past. We’re co-creating a real life thing.”
That story (and it’s a good one) sits at the heart of two new Lego helmet sets launched yesterday in Monaco, timed to coincide with McLaren’s 1000th Formula 1 race. The Lando Norris Helmet and Oscar Piastri Helmet are available now, each at 793 pieces and US$89.99 / £79.99.
Having seen both in person, I can tell you they’re worth every penny. But how they got here is almost as impressive as the sets themselves…
Two years to develop
The project began roughly two years ago – an eternity in Formula 1 terms, where car liveries and aerodynamic parts can change almost overnight. The helmets gave the Lego design team something more stable to work with. The challenge, though, was fundamental: helmets are round, and Lego bricks really aren’t.
“Obviously, bricks are not very round,” Oscar Piastri says with characteristic dry tone. “So there’s a lot of work that went into that, and then trying to translate that onto a round object – that was pretty challenging as well.”
The design process ran in both directions. The Lego team co-designed the sets with the drivers, and those designs then became the basis for the real helmets Norris and Piastri will wear in Monaco this weekend. The toy inspired the real thing, not the other way around.
“They look basically identical,” says Piastri. “But one I can actually wear.”
Meehan says both drivers were actively involved throughout. “They had some great ideas, which we cannot wait for fans to discover when building the sets at home. Creating such organic shapes at this scale always presents us with exciting opportunities for exploring new building techniques and creative parts usage.”
The minifigure negotiations
Both sets include minifigures – the first time either driver has appeared in that form – and getting there required more negotiation than you might expect.
For Piastri, the answer came quickly. He wanted to be shown in casual clothes rather than race gear: shorts, a t-shirt, and flip-flops (or thongs, as he calls them). The Lego team delivered, right down to Lego kangaroos printed on his outfit, which every detail anatomically correct as a Lego element.
Norris proved slightly more complicated. Specifically, his hair did. The team couldn’t find a minifigure hair piece that matched, and the meeting was running long. Meehan’s solution was: if they couldn’t find the right one, Lando would get a haircut. Norris agreed.
The hair in the final set looks great. His minifigure’s outfit is inspired by his Monaco fit from last year. He wears a hoodie, leather jacket, and white high-tops – his own selection from a range of outfit options the team put together.
The number that changed everything
Here’s where it gets interesting. When the sets went into development, Norris was still racing with the number 4. Everything was designed accordingly – the helmet, the minifigure, the signature plaque, even an L4N Easter egg built into the base. Then Norris won the championship and adopted the number 1.
“We had quite a long meeting where we were like, we need to change it,” says Meehan. “We’re not recreating an object from the past. We’re co-creating a real life thing.”
The number on the helmet became a 1. The minifigure got updated. Then someone remembered: Norris’s signature had always incorporated a 4. Did he have a new one?
“I think we left it two days before we sent a message going – I know you’re probably busy, but has Lando got a new signature?” Meehan recalls. “They sent it straight away. They’d already had one.”
There’s one final detail worth knowing before you open the box. The set still contains a spare tile – the one that would have been the number 4 on top of the helmet, had Norris not gone and become world champion. It sits in the parts bag, unlabelled. It’s one of the many easter eggs in these sets (some so secret Meehan won’t tell me about).
Q&A with Lando and Oscar
With almost 20 McLaren-themed Lego sets now in existence, I submitted the question asking if they could build anything from McLaren or F1’s history, what would it be? Oscar answered the MP4/4, while Norris chose the McLaren Technology Centre – specifically the Boulevard running through it, which traces the team’s history from the very beginning through to the current cars. “A mini Boulevard, you know, or like a mini MTC – that would be something pretty special,” he says.
The conversation turned to whether the two of them could actually build Lego together. “We would be great,” Norris says, before turning to Piastri. “I think we both probably have our own specialities in putting things together. Are you good at following instructions? You’re not.” Both concede they’d probably struggle. “We’ll have to set a challenge one day and see,” Norris says. Piastri’s responded, “You’ve just given the marketing team a great idea.”
Away from the race weekend, both use downtime differently. Norris gravitates toward golf, time on the water when he can get it, and (genuinely) Lego. He has a collection at home, McLaren sets and others, some going back to his childhood. “It’s nice to have all of that and see the history from some of those things,” he says. “Anything to calm the heart down and slow the heart rate a little bit is always nice.”
Piastri’s prefers to soak up the sun, “especially at this time of year, being out in the sun is always nice. As you can see, I’ve really topped up my tan.” Really, though, his priority after a race weekend is being home. “Just being able to do some of the quiet things in your own spaces is always awesome,” he says.
Finally, the conversation moved on to how Lego inspired the next generation of F1 fans. Norris thinks about it in terms of access – the kind of access he didn’t have growing up. “I don’t know how much racing stuff there was in Lego when we grew up,” he says. “Growing up, I would have loved a Lewis [Hamilton] one or a Jenson [Button] one, and the McLaren cars.” Now that access is there — through Netflix, through products like these – he hopes it pulls kids in.
“Hopefully maybe it’s an inspiration to be a racing driver or to be part of McLaren. It’s pretty cool to know this is going to be all around the world and you’re going to have people everywhere building them.”
Piastri frames it around physical engagement. He wasn’t the kid who wanted to sit and watch cars on television for an hour and a half – he wanted something to get his hands on. “To be able to get racing and F1 and motorsport into that kind of category, and give kids something new to build, is really cool,” he says. “Not everyone in the world is going to be lucky enough to come to an F1 race or drive a go-kart. The more experiences you can offer, the better.”
The Easter eggs
The Lando and Oscar’s logo built into their respective bases, and there are stickers in the box – but Meehan won’t tell me what stickers exactly. “That’s for when fans open the box,” he says.
The LEGO Editions McLaren Mastercard F1 Team Oscar Piastri Helmet (set no. 43017) and Lando Norris Helmet (set no. 43023) are both available now at $89.99 / £79.99 on the Lego website and in Lego stores worldwide.
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