Speed Champions

Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance & Mercedes-AMG Project One

Two silver arrows in one box, and the little F1 car is the one that stole my heart.

Brick Rated Score

4.2/5

Set 76909 · 2022

Pieces567

Minifigs2

Year2022

Set number76909

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The verdict

Getting two cars in a single Speed Champions box still feels a bit like a mistake in your favour, and this pairing gives you Lewis Hamilton's 2021 F1 W12 next to the road-legal Project One hypercar.

The F1 car is the star here, low and sharp and full of clever little shaping tricks, while the Project One reads more as a silver slab until the stickers go on. I loved building both, though I won't pretend the 62 stickers and that chunky halo bar didn't test me. At its old $34.99 price for two cars, it was one of the easiest recommendations in the theme.

Best for: Formula 1 fans who want a real F1 car on the shelf without spending big

The full review

What it is

I have built a lot of Speed Champions cars over the years, and the moment that still gets me is opening a box like this and realising there are two cars inside, not one. This 2022 set pairs Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes-AMG F1 W12 E Performance, the actual 2021 grand prix car, with the Project One, the thousand-horsepower road car that is basically an F1 engine wearing a number plate. The F1 car is what got me. It sits low and mean, the nose comes to a genuinely sharp point, and the designers pulled off that shape with some smart sideways building that is more interesting than the piece count suggests. Watching an open-wheel Formula 1 car come together from a small pile of bricks is a real thrill.

The catch

I will be straight with you about the two things that will test your patience. First, the stickers. There are 62 of them across both cars, and this set leans on them hard for its identity, which is a shame because a few have to go on parts you then bury, so you end up pulling sections apart to reach them. The side window stickers on the F1 car come in three pieces per side that do not quite line up, and you notice the gaps. Second, the halo, that safety bar over the F1 driver's head, is done with a rigid tube that ends up too thick and bulky to convince. The Project One has its own issue: it is a handsome enough shape in hand, but strip the stickers away and it is a silver slab that could be almost any supercar.

Who it's for

If you love Formula 1, or you just want a real open-wheel racer on your shelf without paying big-set money, this is an easy yes even now. Two cars, two exclusive driver figures, and a build that stays fun the whole way through is a lot of value for the money. If stickers genuinely put you off, or you were only ever interested in the Project One and not the F1 car, you might feel differently, because the hypercar is the weaker half of the pair. For everyone else, especially anyone who followed that 2021 season, this one is a keeper.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build runs about two hours across both cars and never drags, which is not always a given at this size. The F1 W12 is the more rewarding of the two, using a lot of sideways and angled construction to get that knife-edge nose and the stepped bodywork, and it is the kind of build where you keep pausing to see the real car appearing. The Project One is more conventional under the shell, a lot of slab-building to fill out that wide body, so the interest there comes from the finish rather than the technique. Just be ready to keep the sticker sheet close and a steady hand ready, because this set really does ask a lot of that sheet.

The standout parts are the printed Pirelli wheel covers on the F1 car, which look far better than a sticker would have and save those wheels from the usual mid-build fiddle. Both driver minifigs are exclusive to this set, each with a racing helmet, a wig for the podium look, and a wrench, and they carry a little value of their own on the second-hand market. The set also tucks in a rigid flex-tube for the halo, which is a useful part even if the halo itself is the thing people grumble about. For a 567-piece box that gave you two complete cars at its original price, the part-for-money math was always on your side.

Fun facts

01The F1 W12 E Performance is the real car Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas raced through the 2021 Formula 1 season.
02The Mercedes-AMG Project One is a road-legal hypercar that borrows an actual Formula 1 hybrid power unit, producing around 1,000 horsepower.
03The set launched in March 2022 at $34.99 and retired at the end of 2024, and its value has crept up since it left shelves.
04Both driver minifigures are exclusive to this set and appear in no other LEGO release.