Lego goes all in on Formula 1, adding F1 Academy team sponsorship
Formula 1 cars and a track built with Lego are on display at the 2025 Canadian International Auto Show at the Metro Convention Center in Toronto on February 21, 2025.
Nurfoto | Getty Images
Lego is rebuilding consumer engagement with motorsports, brick by brick.
In 2025, Lego made a debut. partnership With Formula 1 bringing officially licensed sets to global retail shelves and immersive experiences to races around the world. In the nearly year since its launch, the collaboration has increased fan engagement for both brands, led to promotional sales of Lego products, and expanded the demographic reach of the toy company and racing organization.
In August, Lego CEO Niels Christiansen touted the company’s Formula 1 sets as one of the innovations that drove record first-half revenue and operating profit. The company, a privately held company, reported that revenue in the first six months of 2025 rose 12% year-on-year to 34.6 billion Danish kroner, or $5.4 billion.
“This has a huge fan base,” Julia Goldin, Lego’s chief product and marketing officer, told CNBC. “It’s the biggest motorsport right now in terms of fan community. … We felt like we could really capitalize on that and offer something very unique.”
With Formula 1, Lego is not only strengthening existing fandom, but expanding it, bringing underserved demographics to the world of racing and attracting new customers.
“Lego has a great reputation for choosing the right trends to be a part of, and motorsport has been on a real boom in recent years,” said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of The Toy Book.
“F1, as we have seen, has become a cultural juggernaut that appeals to an audience that is not your typical motorsport fan.” he said. “It seems to transcend their age and interests.”
ESPN broadcasts the 2025 F1 season in the USA. record viewing reported numbers for races. DisneyThe owned sports network averaged 1.3 million viewers across its stations and platforms for much of the racing calendar. This was higher than the previous record of 1.21 million viewers set in 2022 and just 554,000 viewers in 2018, the first year of ESPN’s broadcast deal with F1.
USA next year publishing rights to move Apple The TV follows the success of the Apple-distributed “F1: The Movie,” which opened in theaters in June.
F1 Academy Lego car model during previews ahead of the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas on November 19, 2025.
Hector Vivas | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
By expanding its product catalog – offering meticulously designed F1 car brick sets complete with team-appropriate liveries – Lego has built gateways to the brand for newcomers.
“The core of this was understanding our audience’s passion points,” Goldin said. “When we choose to enter into a partnership, can we see ourselves doing something unique that will deliver real value? We felt like we had a real opportunity to deliver experiences they would truly love.”
The F1 portfolio included products for Lego’s Duplo range aimed at preschoolers, traditional sets for casual builders, and Lego Technic sets for more advanced builders.
Kick Sauber driver Nico Hulkenberg celebrates on the podium with a Lego trophy after finishing third in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire on July 6, 2025.
Bradley Collyer | Pa Pictures | Getty Images
Lego also appeared in F1 races throughout the season; It has hosted personal events such as building functional, life-size Formula 1 cars and even brick trophies for podium finishers at the British Grand Prix at Silverstone.
At the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November, the top three drivers were chauffeured to the media access area after the race in a life-size pink Lego Cadillac, a nod to the Cadillac F1 team that will join the grid in 2026.
Terry Crews leads the top three drivers to the podium in his pink Lego Cadillac at the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix; these include race winner Max Verstappen of the Netherlands and second-place finisher Lando Norris of Great Britain and McLaren for Oracle Red Bull Racing (later disqualified), and third-place finisher George Russell of Great Britain and the Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team, 22 November 2025, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Mark Sutton – Formula 1 | Formula 1 | Getty Images
With the completion of the 2025 season, Lego is already preparing for next year.
Building a new future
“Lego is one of our dream partners,” said Susie Wolff, general manager of the F1 Academy, an all-female racing league under the F1 umbrella.
“When they joined Formula 1 I immediately reached out to Julia. [Goldin], [chief product and marketing officer]Wolff told CNBC: “Listen, can we explore doing something together with the F1 Academy?” he said. “There are a lot of synergies between what they’re trying to do and our core mission.”
F1 Academy held its inaugural season in 2023. The division was established to address the lack of female drivers in the F1 series and aims to develop young female drivers and prepare them for higher levels of competition.
“We are trying to break down the prejudices that motor sports is a male-dominated environment,” Wolff said, noting that Lego has taken similar steps to promote inclusivity with its brick sets.
As part of the ongoing relationship between the two brands, Lego team sponsor For an F1 Academy car starting in 2026. Behind the wheel is 20-year-old Dutch driver Esmee Kosterman.
The F1 Academy Lego skin is revealed during previews ahead of the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit in Las Vegas on November 19, 2025.
Hector Vivas | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images
Lego’s Goldin said that although the F1 Academy partnership is an extension of its existing racing partnership, “they’re doing it in a unique way because they’re actually partnering to support a life-size car and driver.”
“This is a very important element to attract more attention and highlight the reliability and originality of women participating in motorsport and, more importantly, to ensure that their parents see this opportunity. [and] “There is the potential for them to be engaged in sports,” Goldin said.
The Toy Book’s Zahn described the collaboration between Lego and Formula 1, specifically the F1 Academy, as a “perfect partnership”.
“[The] “Female motorsport fans have always been there, but they haven’t necessarily been embraced on the consumer product side of things,” she said.
Wolff and Goldin stated that one of the fastest growing segments of the Formula 1 fan base is women.
“We take full advantage of the trend of this fandom and also add value to the partner,” Goldin said. “From our data, we see that not only are more F1 fans attracted to the Lego brand, but also the opposite. There are now more Lego brand fans becoming Formula 1 fans.”
