Review: LEGO 77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car (Speed Champions)
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The 2025 Speed Champions F1 lineup brings a whole host of iconic F1 teams into the brick form, one of which is McLaren – who underwent a glorious comeback to win the 2024 World Constructors’ Championship after a 26-year wait.
Thus, the championship-winning 77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car will likely be highly desirable among fans, but this is actually not the first time we’ve gotten a McLaren F1 race car in the Speed Champions theme!
Is this set an improvement on its predecessor, and more importantly, can it stand on its own merits? Let’s find out!
77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car will be available from 1 March 2025 onwards, and can be pre-ordered on LEGO.com, Amazon.com, or as part of the massive LEGO Ultimate Formula 1 Collector’s Pack.
This is a guest review by automotive correspondent and F1 superfan Vaderfan, who will be bringing you a whole heap of LEGO and Technic Formula 1 reviews in the next few days!
Special thanks to the LEGO Group for sending this set over for review. If you’re planning on purchasing or pre-ordering this set, please consider using the affiliate links in this post. I may earn a small commission with each purchase that helps support the work I do on the blog!
77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car Set Details
77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car
77251
McLaren F1 Team MCL38
1 (McLaren F1 Driver)
269
US$26.99 / AU$39.99 / €26.99 / £22.99 / CAD$34.99
1 March 2025
Unboxing
The box has the standard Formula One design that adorns most of the sets in the F1 Speed Champions lineup, along with all the necessary logos on the front.
The back of the box shows off a comparison with the real car, plus some alternate angles of the model.
Interestingly, although the new set has a higher piece count, the new box has a slightly thinner design than its predecessor. Perhaps this will allow for a more efficient use of shelf space?
Inside are six numbered bags, an instruction manual, a large sticker sheet, and a loose chassis piece – pretty standard for sets in this lineup.
Two pages inside the instruction manual are dedicated to a comparison of the real car and the LEGO car. While the Ferrari instructions focused on their cities of origin, this one compares the widths of the real car (2m) and the LEGO version (10 studs).
The sticker sheet is pretty extensive in this set, which is unfortunate but also unavoidable. There are already several specialised printed pieces in this set, and it would be unrealistic to expect LEGO to print all the above designs without significantly affecting the price.
Some interesting parts in the set include the new 2×6 inverted curved slope for the rear wing, an axle connector piece with a cover for the front wheels, and the new printed 1×6 curved slope for the front wing. New, thicker rear wheels are also introduced, and these are adorned with white prints to designate them as Pirelli hard tyres – some much needed variation.
Build Process
The build is divided into three stages – bags 1 and 2 form the core centre section of the car.
Bags 3 and 4 add most of the rear shaping, including the rear wing.
Finally, bags 5 and 6 complete the car by adding more detail towards the front. As has come to be expected from the Speed Champions theme nowadays, this set was a masterclass in build techniques – lots of creative mini sub-assemblies attached in creative ways that will blow your mind! Even if you’re not an F1 fan, I would recommend picking up one set in the wave just to experience the limits of the brick-built system for yourself.
Minifigures
Just one minifigure is included to drive the car, sporting the orange and black racing suit that was first introduced in the City theme. While the design layout is mostly accurate, the suit is overall devoid of the sponsors that adorn the real racing suit, which creates an incredibly plain design.
The new dual-moulded helmet looks great, though, with a large McLaren logo printed on top. For what it’s worth, neither of the 2024 McLaren drivers actually wore a fully orange helmet – Lando Norris wears yellow and Oscar Piastri’s helmet was bluish – so while this generic version matches the colour of the car, perhaps some recoloured helmets could have been included as an extra option?
A brown hairpiece is included if you want to display the minifigure without the helmet on. He sports a huge grin, likely due to the championship-winning status of the MCL38!
Reference Image
Completed Model
Here’s how the completed MCL38 looks. The black-and-orange colour scheme has been captured well here, with good colour blocking.
The model looks great from most angles, including this front view that does a good job highlighting the front wing and surprisingly accurate shape of the sidepods.
The side view is flattering too; the model has good proportions despite the size constraints. Although some sponsors are missing (like VELO – unsurprising as it’s a nicotine brand), there are plenty of stickers that give the livery the right amount of clutter.
A look at the underside reveals the complex build techniques that go into the model – there are pieces facing every direction, including upside-down! 1×1 plate with claw pieces are used behind the front wheels to represent the Venturi tunnels, although they are only attached by one stud each so can be a little fiddly.
The model looks generally good around the rear too, with more sponsor stickers. The DRS activator on the rear wing, formed with a mech finger piece, does look a little oversized from this view.
The front wing is a bit too bulky (as an unfortunate limitation of the scale), but still looks good in terms of overall shaping. The new 1×6 printed curved slope looks fantastic here, as do the new wheel cover elements. Interestingly, the 1×1 slope at the front with the Google Chrome and McLaren logo is a sticker, which is unusual as usually LEGO prints smaller elements like these.
The sidepods are represented using a pair of relatively old curved slope pieces with some stickers for additional detail, but these do a pretty good job of capturing the McLaren’s long, narrow sidepod design. The openings of the sidepods at the front are a bit less convincing, but again that comes down to a limitation of the scale.
The rear of the sidepods, represented by 1×6 curved slopes, are hinged inwards just like on the real car. Despite their 1-brick-width, I think this transition is smoother than on the Ferrari SF-24, which is also partly due to the predominantly black design masking the more awkward parts of the design.
The halo is represented with a bright orange flexible tube element. The minifigure sits too high up, but that is just limited by the actual size of the car and the proportions of a minifigure.
The halo can open up to grant better access to the driver’s cockpit. A nice grey seat with a headrest is brick-built, and above that is the airbox and T-Cam represented by a couple of black pieces.
The driver gets the nice printed Speed Champions F1 steering wheel element, along with a pair of spoons that represent rear-view mirrors.
The rear bodywork of the car is mostly done well too. 1×4 curved pieces are used to represent the haunches at the back of the real MCL38, and this is paired with some 2×5 black corner slopes that taper the upper bodywork downwards.
The 2025 Speed Champions cars also hide some ingenious build techniques behind the (beautifully printed) rear wheels – using a clear minifigure neck bracket mounted through an axle to insert a curved slope upside-down to complete the floor of the car!
The back of the car is adorned with more stickers, although a printed 1×1 tile represents the flashing red lights used when the car’s battery is recharging.
Comparisons
Finally, here’s the comparison you’ve all been waiting for – how does this car stack up against its predecessor from last year! Well, for starters, the light blue highlights are gone – reflective of a change in liveries between the MCL60 and the MCL38.
Despite their outwardly similar designs, the new car is actually slightly bigger! Also, the larger rear wheels are such a great upgrade.
Another understated upgrade is the new 1×6 curved slope for the front wing, which looks leagues better than the flat nose on the old car! Also, by going with a base orange piece and printing the sides black, the orange design looks far more vibrant on the new set.
The shaping of the rear wing has also been improved, mostly thanks to the introduction of the new 2×6 curved slope. The replacement of the trans-red tile with a printed one may divide opinion, but I think the new version looks sleeker and more accurate.
While these two represent the same car, the Speed Champions variant is far more detailed than the City version! That is, of course, to be expected, and the new one is double the price, but I think the increase in detail justifies that disparity.
The model also looks fantastic next to any of the other 2025 Speed Champions cars. Ferrari and McLaren are two teams with a huge racing rivalry between them that was reignited last year, so I anticipate this duo will likely sell well together!
Final Thoughts
On the whole, the LEGO Speed Champions design team have done an absolutely fabulous job on the March 2025 Speed Champions wave, and which set(s) you decide to get will likely come down to personal preference based on your favourite teams.
However, the choice to create some variation between the builds is very commendable, and it’s not for no reason – the design differences between 77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car and 77242 Ferrari SF-24 are done to reflect the differences in car design especially around the sidepods. Those differences are not insignificant, either – the core design of the model was drastically changed to accommodate very distinctive design elements.
US$26.99 isn’t a steal by any measure, but considering the slight size increase and design improvements over its predecessor, 76919 McLaren Formula 1 Car (that was the same price!), I think it is justifiable. Anyway, given the McLaren F1 team’s historical comeback and growing popularity, this set will probably fly off shelves anyway. Well done to the design team, who have created a winning model to reflect a championship-winning car.
Final Score
Audience rating
Thanks for reading! 77251 McLaren F1 Team MCL38 Race Car will be available from 1 March 2025 onwards, and can be pre-ordered on LEGO.com, Amazon.com, or as part of the massive LEGO Ultimate Formula 1 Collector’s Pack.
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