Motor racing-F1 drivers given trophies made of LEGO at British GP

By Alan Baldwin

SILVERSTONE, England (Reuters) -The top three finishers in Sunday's British Formula One Grand Prix were rewarded for their efforts with trophies made of LEGO toy bricks, a novelty appreciated by some more than others.

The trophies are part of a multi-year partnership between LEGO and Formula One that has already put drivers in a fleet of 10 brick-built cars for a pre-race parade at the Miami Grand Prix, a moment that went viral.

"How does it feel after 15 years of F1 to get a podium (trophy) that's made out of LEGO that you can just pull apart?," McLaren's runner-up Oscar Piastri asked Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, on the podium for the first time after 239 starts.

"It's just made out of LEGO that you can pull apart and probably buy next week," explained the Australian teasingly.

"I love LEGO. It's good. My daughter can play with it too. You’ve always got to see the bright side," replied the German. "But, you know, a bit of silver or gold would have been nice too, but I won't complain."

Sunday's race marked 75 years of the championship at the Silverstone circuit where it started in 1950 and the winner's gold-adorned LEGO trophy, modelled on the real RAC golden trophy, is made of 2,717 bricks.

It weighs more than 2 kg and is more than 59 cm high and, contrary to Piastri's assertion, cannot be bought as a kit.

The second and third-placed trophies were white with red and blue detailing respectively, while the constructors' was dark blue and gold.

"We wanted to create something very special because it's the 75th anniversary," LEGO's chief product and marketing officer Julia Goldin said.

The blocks are stuck together with glue, and took seven builders 210 hours to create in Denmark.

NEW AUDIENCES

Formula One is reaching out to a new demographic, and particularly a younger audience, with considerable success and has found partners in previously untapped areas.

That includes deals with Mattel's Hot Wheels toy cars, a 2026 collaboration with Disney's Mickey & Friends and LEGO announced last year.

Emily Prazer, Formula One's chief commercial officer, rejected any suggestion of the sport "dumbing down" and said the strategy was to make brands more accessible and reach out to those who may never go to a race.

"LEGO puts us in nearly every shopping mall in the world," she said. "Disney helps us appeal to the next generation of fans. Hot Wheels and Mattel allow for kids to actually play with the cars at home."

Goldin said LEGO also appealed to more and more adults and had products that were intriguing to people with all kinds of interests.

"The same is happening with F1 and there is a real benefit of how the sport is able to engage different people with different interests and different elements of the sport," she said.

"We are not just trying to turn the sport into a toy but actually trying to help the fans to experience the best."

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ed Osmond and Clare Fallon)