Revealed this month the LEGO® Technic™ Ferrari Daytona SP3 is the result of a genuine partnership between Maranello’s Centro Stile and the LEGO Technic team
The Lego Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3 is the latest chapter in a Ferrari / LEGO collaboration that goes back to as early as 1998. Interestingly, although the range has covered everything from LEGO DUPLO toys to the intricate LEGO Racers series (which included a 1:10 Ferrari 599 and Enzo), it was only last year, in 2021, that a Ferrari set arrived with the LEGO Technic Logo on the box - the Ferrari 488 GTE AF Corse #51.
Watch the story of the LEGO Technic Ferrari Daytona SP3
The LEGO Technic team were keen to follow the success of the Ferrari 488 GTE with another Prancing Horse, but this presented a unique design challenge: the real version was still in development stage, meaning there was no actual car on which to base the model on. The result? A real-time collaboration and partnership between the design teams to ensure the final result was as close to the real thing as possible.
Ferrari Head of Design, Flavio Manzoni, explores the working components of the LEGO Technic creation
It's important to note here that LEGO sets are not diecast models. Their intention was never to produce a small-scale exact replica of the Ferrari Daytona SP3. Instead, LEGO team’s aim to provide an authentic, immersive experience using LEGO Technic elements to create a fully working car. Through the build, you begin to understand how the gearbox works, how the suspension connects, how pistons turn and even how the steering works.
LEGO Technic Senior Designer Uwe Wabra was tasked with the development, design and functionality of the car, a process that began during the pandemic via video calls with Maranello and ended with him sitting behind the finished wheel of the real-life Ferrari Daytona SP3.
A perfect partnership: LEGO Technic designers Uwe Wabra and Aurélien Rouffiange in a video call with the Ferrari design team, and Uwe back at his workshop
Uwe is no stranger to either LEGO models or Ferrari, having spent 25 years with the the LEGO Group, working on the 738-piece Ferrari F1, the 1,360-piece Enzo Ferrari and the 1,327-piece Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano in the process.
As part of the partnership, he had direct access to the Centro Stile’s interior and exterior designers, plus the head of design, Flavio Manzoni. There was also a visit at the Maranello headquarters allowing Uwe to immerse himself in the world of Ferrari and translate his learnings directly into the car build.
The real V12 Ferrari Daytona SP3 joins its LEGO Technic counterpart
Those learnings presented the occasional challenge to overcome. The LEGO Technic team have never made a car with butterfly doors for example, but the finished product features not just fully operational doors, but also a hidden button to activate them. In other words, just like the real thing, the car is about form with functionality. It is not just a wonderful shape, something beautiful to display, but a tactile demonstration into what real car engineering is about.
As the model offers many hours of immersive building it was important to both Ferrari and The LEGO Technic team that the unboxing of the car was just as entertaining as the build. The design cues of the packaging therefore pay tribute to the real Ferrari Daytona SP3. The car also comes with two books that contain both the building steps needed to complete the model, as well as exclusive interviews and behind the scenes photography, delivering a truly immersive experience from start to finish.