Adrian Newey wanted to do something new with the RB17

On the occasion of the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Red Bull revealed its very first Hypercar which is also their first production car. The RB17 has finally seen the light of day, two years after its announcement. A monster equipped with a central rear naturally aspirated V10 engine and mounted on a two-seater carbon fiber monocoque chassis. 1200hp for… just under 900 kilograms!

Obviously, it is the legendary Adrian Newey who is at the origin of this “ F1 » approved. The British engineer has also returned, for the site f1.com, on the design of the RB17 and the reasons which pushed it to embark on this project. "I think I've been in F1 for a number of years and, to avoid getting bored, sometimes I need other projects to give me inspiration and so on, to so when I'm in F1 I don't feel like I'm always doing the same thing.

THEAston Martin Valkyrie was the first such project, and then I started wondering what the next project could be. I didn't want to just do Valkyrie 2, it had to be something different. I thought about it for a while. »

Presenting the RB17 😍 Designed by Adrian Newey and Red Bull Advanced Technologies ✍️

Built on 20 years of #F1 innovation, the RB17 has over 1,000 horsepower and a V10 engine 💪 pic.twitter.com/WS53k958Pe

- Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 12, 2024

Newey focused his project on creating a car capable of adapting according to the driver behind the wheel. And to illustrate his words, Adrian Newey took… golf as an example.

“The model I came up with in my head is this: for example, you decide to start playing golf, you go to a golf club, you hit a few balls and the balls fly everywhere, but you love it. You then say to yourself: "Okay, I want to improve", and you hire a caddy, a coach... Part of the pleasure lies in the game, the other in helping yourself to become better at game, and that's the model we're trying to adopt. If you want a more forgiving or stable car, you turn the knob one way, and if you want something more responsive, you go the other way, allowing you to evolve with the car as you go. as you improve. »

The RB17, Newey's latest gift to Red Bull

While he announced on May 1 that he was leaving Red Bull at the start of 2025, the Red Bull Hypercar will ultimately be Adrian Newey's last major project after nearly 20 years of loyal service. “It was never planned this way, of course (to end with the RB17, Editor’s note). When we started the car at the very beginning of 2021, I never considered that I would no longer be part of the team in 2025, or at the beginning of the second quarter of 2025.

Although the RB17 has been revealed, Adrian Newey's work does not stop there. The British engineer estimates that there are still six months of work left before, why not, taking a well-deserved vacation?

“The advantage is that we are at a very important stage of the RB17 in terms of publishing the detailed drawings, He explains. We still have some aerodynamic work to do on the parts that haven't been fixed yet. We have all the considerations regarding the maintenance plan, maintenance costs, how it all works, so there's a lot of work to be done in the next six months or so. At the same time, I can also take a little vacation. I've been in the business almost continuously for a long time, so taking a little break is good! »

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