The Story Behind Lando and Oscar’s LEGO Helmets

Lando Norris dialled into the meeting from the racetrack, eating his breakfast. The call was with the LEGO Group, and on the agenda was the design of a helmet he would wear at the 2026 Monaco Grand Prix. It was one of several meetings, some in person, some over video, that formed a two-year project between the Danish toymaker and McLaren Racing.

The idea first emerged two years ago. For five years, LEGO had been recreating McLaren Formula 1 cars. In 2022, they even built a life-sized MCL36. The new proposal flipped the process. A LEGO design would appear on track, created to mark McLaren’s 1000th Grand Prix. Dan Meehan, Design Director at the LEGO Group, called it “one of the coolest things that I’ve ever worked on.”

Early sketches from December 2024 proposed a two-sided helmet. One half would replicate the team’s special 1000th Grand Prix livery. The other half would be a collaboration with the driver. Lando Norris chose to keep his distinctive blob aesthetic, while his teammate Oscar Piastri opted for a completely new design.

A Personal Touch

The drivers were also central to the design of their own LEGO minifigures. Typically, driver figures appear in race suits. Norris and Piastri wanted theirs in the casual clothes they wear in the paddock on a Thursday. Lando’s look was inspired by his arrival at a previous Monaco Grand Prix on a moped, featuring a leather jacket, black T-shirt, and a McLaren necklace. Oscar’s reflects his Australian heritage, with a summer fit of thongs and a T-shirt he’d wear in his native Melbourne.

“It's got thongs, a T-shirt, and the hair is pretty much perfect as well,” Piastri said of his figure. Discussions about the drivers’ hair were so detailed that Meehan joked, “If we can’t decide on one, then we’ll pick a hairstyle, and you’ll have to get that haircut to match the minifigure!”

The co-creation process began in earnest about six months after the initial idea, with workshops at the McLaren factory. Meehan and his colleagues brought white LEGO race helmets built specifically to be drawn on. As they worked, Model Design Master John Ho digitized the designs to speed things up. Beatrice, a graphic designer with a fashion background, created a range of outfits for the drivers to choose from for their minifigures.

From Concept to Champion

Translating the fluid helmet graphics into hundreds of straight-lined LEGO elements required what Meehan calls “a little bit of mad genius.” The team, including a graphic designer and huge McLaren fan named Colin, had to create new parts, like single-element visors, to make the build feel genuine. The complexity was a challenge for John Ho and the building instructions team, who wanted to ensure as many people as possible could build the final product.

As production neared, the team faced a complicated obstacle. “There was this realisation that, ‘wait a minute, someone's going to be World Champion here, which means that they’re probably going to change their race number,’” Meehan recalled. The sets, featuring Lando’s Number 4 and Oscar’s Number 81, had a production deadline of the Brazilian Grand Prix. This left little time to make a change if a driver won the championship and took the Number 1.

In the end, Lando Norris did become World Champion. The team had to call in favours. After a few late nights, they managed to change Lando’s number from 4 to 1. The update was applied to the helmet itself, the minifigure, his signature on the plate, and all the packaging. They received his new signature just two days after he won the title.

The effort ensured that when Norris and Piastri drove the streets of Monte Carlo for McLaren’s 1000th Grand Prix, fans at home could be building the very helmets they were wearing. “This is a genuine co-creation, from the original sketches all the way through to the prototypes and the actual helmets,” Meehan said. “It’s a real pinch-me moment. And to see them in Monaco, on track, is amazing.”

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