Throughout his 30+ years of F1 career, Adrian Newey has designed multiple championship-winning vehicles. As time passed, he increasingly directed his focus towards the design of road cars. After building the Aston Martin Valkyrie to perfection, he is currently working on his off-road vehicle, the RB17 Hypercar. Nevertheless, this shift to road car design might have led the FIA to mandate his departure from Red Bull Racing.
Auto Motor Und Sport’s Michael Schmidt has disclosed that there is a likelihood that Newey will need to reduce his role with the Red Bull team. This potential change in the Red Bull mastermind’s role is connected to his part-time engagement with the Milton Keynes-based team.
Newey’s position with Red Bull places him within the top three technical roles exempted from Formula 1’s budget cap. Thus, AMuS speculates that Newey’s part-time commitment to developing the RB17 hypercar might compel him to free up the team from extra-budget positions.
This is interesting. #AMuS reports Adrian Newey might step back from Red Bull’s F1 team & devote himself entirely to the RB17 because of budget cap concerns.
Newey’s exit would free up one of Red Bull’s three highest-paid staff member spots, which are exempt from the budget cap. pic.twitter.com/c87Y2zHTHT
— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) January 25, 2024
The FIA’s latest research on the technological synergies between Formula 1 and sports cars is said to be the driving force behind this decision. Besides this, Red Bull’s taskmaster Helmut Marko has also confirmed this information.
According to the 80-year-old, competitors have suggested that the underbody of the RB17 Hypercar is providing insights for designing the F1 car. However, Marko doesn’t buy into such claims by their rival teams. That is why the Austrian advisor feels they need to find a solution and sort this situation out.
Why is the Red Bull17 Hypercar generating so much buzz?
The RB17 is the first product of Red Bull Technology. Adrian Newey came up with the idea for the entire design during the COVID lockdown in the UK. Despite the prominence of the RB17, many are unaware of the intriguing reason behind its nomenclature.
In 2021, Formula 1 implemented a cost-saving measure, encouraging teams to retain their 2020 car designs. Consequently, after Red Bull’s 2020 car was named RB16, its modestly updated version in 2021 became the RB16B. Fast forward to 2022, as the RB18 made its debut, Red Bull strategically named their latest creation as RB17.
Currently, Red Bull is still in the design, engineering, and development process of the RB17. Intriguingly, they have chosen to limit production to just 50 units, and all manufacturing processes will take place in-house. This emulates the earlier approach during the design of the Valkyrie by Newey in collaboration with Aston Martin.
Indeed, the RB17 holds significance not only for its historical context due to Red Bull’s impressive F1 triumphs. Thus, they anticipate it to deliver top-tier performance. This Newey-designed masterpiece will come with a hefty price tag of $6.2 million. However, it’s also critical to remember that the two-seater RB17 is not intended to be road-legal from the start, rather it is specifically crafted for track use.
About the car’s features, it incorporates engineering solutions derived from Red Bull’s Formula 1 program. Moreover, it will feature advanced ground effects. While talking about the powertrain, the RB17’s twin-turbo V-8 engine, which combines a hybrid component, generates over 1100 horsepower.
Despite developing their indigenous F1 engine program, the team has not officially confirmed the entity responsible for building the engine of the RB17. However, there have been suggestions that a third party might be involved in the engine production. With Ford coming on board for their RBPT F1 engines for 2026, it may have some input in the Hypercar’s engine too.
