Exclusive interview: Adrian Newey explains his last Red Bull "work of art"

“It’s literally a two seat Formula 1 car.”

Welcome, finally, to Adrian Newey’s last Red Bull masterpiece. The RB17, revealed today at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, has been nearly four years in the making.

It’s a £5m hypercar, with a V10 engine capable of hitting 1000bhp. And only 50 will be available to buy. But there are less tangible, much more emotive elements to this car.

First, although Red Bull will have unveiled its 2025 F1 challenger by the time Newey exits the team next March, this will be the final car produced by the energy drinks giant really imbued with his vision. How strange it will soon be to see Newey adorned in the colours of another team, but then, we all got used to him out of Williams blue and McLaren silver…

But secondly, the RB17’s moniker completes Red Bull’s F1 car naming sequence, which had been missing this entry due to 2020’s RB16 being carried on into the following year as the RB16B due to the COVID-19 pandemic-enforced rules tweak meaning carryover cars. Red Bull’s first ground effect machine in 2022 was then called the RB18.

The RB17 does fit the naming sequence perfectly. Because, as he was unable to go skiing or visit his wife’s family home in South Africa as he might’ve done otherwise due to the lockdown restrictions of Christmas 2020, Newey then instead started work on the car introduced to the world today. This was right before the RB16B was finished.

But Newey’s first thoughts behind this concept go even further back.

The limited edition RB17 hypercar will be the final Red Bull car imbued with Newey's influence

Photo by: Motorsport Images

“From my point of view, in terms of the research and design, [Aston Martin’s] Valkyrie project from Red Bull Advanced Technologies’ [RBAT] viewpoint was complete sort of around 2017ish,” Newey tells Autosport in an exclusive interview at the team’s Milton Keynes campus.

“Then in the intermediate years, up to and including through 2020, I started to think, ‘ok, well, what's next?’ And I batted various right ideas around in my head, jotted bits and pieces down and started to come up with the concept of, ‘I've been lucky enough to drive a huge variety of cars on tracks through my career, from historic cars through to Formula 1 cars’.

“I greatly enjoy driving historic cars, but the sheer adrenaline and speed of driving a Formula 1 car is breathtaking. And so, I started to think, ‘could we design a car that is capable of [F1 speeds]?’

"The main reason for limiting it to only 50 cars is that that allows us to manufacture and assemble using the same suppliers, both internal and external, in terms of as we use in Formula 1"
Adrian Newey

“It's a two-seater, so that you can enjoy it with your partner, a friend or indeed, a coach, and is capable of Formula 1 car lap times. But it’s accessible to people of varying degrees of ability. It probably wouldn't be sensible to make this your first time on track but catering for people who have had a relatively limited amount of track experience.

“And so, over the Christmas of 2020 going into 2021, I started to do my first drawing of what that could be. And got that drawing out and to the guys [at RBAT] in January of 2021.

“We then came out of the concept phase in January this year, so that gave us three years of examining the concept in a lot of detail, evolving it and trying to achieve the goals that I just mentioned.”

Aston’s Valkyrie was built in collaboration with RBAT and co-designed by Newey when he was less enthused by F1 during the early years of the V6 turbo hybrid era. Both are ground-effect machines, but it differs from the RB17 in that it unleashes a 6.5-litre V12. For Newey, however, building a hypercar solely with an F1 operation rather than an OEM meant vital other distinctions too.

“First of all, [being] masters of our own destiny,” Newey says of this, having also seen Gordon Murray work with Mercedes on the SLR GT road car during their shared time at McLaren, something Newey suggests wasn’t frictionless.

Unlike with the Valkyrie it designed with Aston Martin, Red Bull could be the master of its own destiny with RB17

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“We can work to the timescales we want to work to and that we feel we need to, to absolutely do the best job possible. And you [can] say, ‘ok, well, that's just negotiation’. But I think one of the things with an OEM is when we went into this project, we didn't know how long we were going to need to get through this concept phase.

“If you'd asked me, ‘would it take three years?’ When we first went into it, I’d have said, ‘no, it will be way quicker than that’. But that's how long it's taken until we've all been completely happy with it.

“Also, the main reason for limiting it to only 50 cars is that that allows us to manufacture and assemble using the same suppliers, both internal and external, in terms of as we use in Formula 1.”

Newey feels the RB17 also “starts with a different remit” compared to the Valkyrie. That is currently being adapted to race the World Endurance Championship from 2025.

The Aston machine is also credited with keeping the ground effect research that became key to Red Bull’s current F1 dominance fresh in Newey’s mind – worth remembering considering it is only recently other teams have begun to catch on to the ride and balance qualities the RB18, RB19 and RB20 have had consistently, beyond being seduced by theoretical peak downforce levels offered by other approaches.

“The remit for the Valkyrie was a road-legal car that has incredible performance and can be enjoyed on track,” Newey adds. “This is somewhat different to that.

“It just means it's a different car. Valkyrie, in terms of from the very initial concept stage to the start of detail design, was [different in] that with hindsight [the Valkyrie had] an overly compressed timeline. Whereas this benefits from having that very extended timeline, where really the car we're doing now is the third evolution of the original car.”

Having presented the first drawings of the RB17 to RBAT in January 2021, simulator trials of a 4WD approach with an electric motor on the front axle led to that being abandoned for weight-saving reasons. This leaves the RB17 as rear-wheel drive, which Newey prefers as “it’s also easier and more satisfying to drive than a 4WD car”. As we’ll get to, there was also a big change in engine choice.

Lengthy concept phase for RB17 ensured Newey was happy with the final product

Photo by: Motorsport Images

But the main idea behind the RB17 is that Newey wants it to be a car where drivers can build up to enjoying F1 speeds.

“The fundamental thing I was chasing is what I would liken it to perhaps learning to play golf or tennis,” he explains. “At some point, you say, ‘right, I'd like to play golf’ and perhaps initially just hit a ball about then, you realise you probably need a coach or a caddy, and then the enjoyment is not simply playing the game. It's also the challenge of how to get better at playing the game.

“This is very much the same model where drivers with relatively limited experience can start driving it, have a coach if they wish to in the passenger seat, and develop their way knowing that ultimately the potential is to do Formula 1 lap times.

The RB17’s dashboard has a series of knobs to allow its drivers to “select stability versus edginess”, per Newey, “through the corner entry phase, apex, exit, low speed, high speed, etc” too

“So you say, ‘ok, well, how do you make it so that is accessible to that relatively inexperienced driver and they don't feel completely intimidated by it?’ The solution we've come up with is first of all to have three tyres of different grip levels.

“We have a partnership with Michelin to develop tyres especially for the car. At the ultimate level, and what's known as the Michelin Confidential [slick tyre], has got huge grip but is relatively temperature sensitive. So, you’d need to be able to be experienced enough to get it up to temperature and the slip angle curve is relatively peaky, so you need to have the control to be able to handle that.

“The intermediate level tyre is a still a slick, still developed by Michelin. But it has a compound which just has a wider operating window and a construction that is less peaky. And then the third tyre is a treaded tyre. A road tyre, basically, but adapted for this, which is a further step in terms of still very good grip, but not as much. Obviously, it has the advantage [of] if it's a little bit damp, you can use it, or there is actually a proper wet tyre as well.

“Then I’ve combined those three tyres with [what] I think the main key in terms of the chassis adaptability is, the active suspension. Because not only does that allow you to tune the downforce, it also more importantly allows you to tune the mechanical balance. Combine that with active aerodynamics, which is another way of also obviously changing the downforce level, and you then have a car where you can adapt it very easily, in principle.”

Newey wants drivers of RB17 to learn to get the most from its impressive performance

Photo by: Motorsport Images

The RB17’s dashboard has a series of knobs to allow its drivers to “select stability versus edginess”, per Newey, “through the corner entry phase, apex, exit, low speed, high speed, etc” too. He and RBAT have worked hard to ensure this process means the owners won’t have to keep “delving into a laptop to adjust this”.

Another critical thing for Newey was that the RB17 had to look and sound good. To achieve the latter around the 1000bhp goal, adapting an F1-inspired V8 engine – as per the original plan – wasn’t going to cut it.

So, in conjunction with Red Bull Powertrains, the RB17 has been fitted with a naturally aspirated V10, 15,000rpm, 150kg, 4.5-litre engine. Because for Newey, “[and] a lot of people would agree, the height of the sort of audio soundtrack for Formula 1 was the high revving V10s until the end of 2005”.

For the styling, he says the car had to be a “work of art that you're happy to display as such in your house or your garage”. “Derive enjoyment simply from the art aspect,” Newey adds. But “the blue car”, as Newey calls it, unveiled at Goodwood will be slightly different compared to the finished RB17.

This has only just started to be built, with suspension parts being produced now before the chassis and gearbox are made in the coming months. The first engine is to be dyno-tested on a similar timescale and track testing will then follow.

The final RB17 will be slightly smaller and change in terms of looks because Newey and RBAT “were anxious that it should comply with all the LMH safety regulations”.

“And where it doesn't comply with the letter, it complies to the spirit,” he adds. “The FIA/ACO has a set of aerodynamic regulations and stipulations but because one of the things [we want] is that the car must be a piece of art, we didn't want to ruin its styling by cutting holes above the wheels and so forth. So, that's actually been about four months of aero work – of getting the car to comply with the LMH regulations, but without hurting the styling.

The RB17 has been designed to comply with safety regulations required of Le Mans Hypercars

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

“In fact, as it turns out, the features we've then put into the car, everybody who's seen it virtually agrees that it actually looks better for it. So, the car has continued to develop. It continues to develop, as I said, in terms of the bodywork, but not in terms of the core structure. Now, we just keep working away at it.”

During our interview in Red Bull’s MK-7 events space – where 14 of the team’s F1 creations are arranged effectively on stage for visitors to enjoy – Newey won’t be drawn on any of the other hot 2024 topics regarding his soon-to-be-former employer.

That’s the Christian Horner behaviour scandal and the new F1 2026 car rules, nor even his exit and if it’s important for his new team to have a related technology business to build other projects.

"It’s got far too much downforce for the LMH regulations. But the core mechanical hardware, yes, that would be perfectly capable of doing Le Mans" Adrian Newey

For RBAT, this includes a submarine commissioned by former Red Bull supremo Dietrich Mateschitz to move around his private island. Newey worked on that “a little bit” and reveals “it’s always one that’s frightened me slightly”.

But one project that could only excite motorsport fans, would be the prospect of the RB17 taking on the Valkyrie – and Ferrari, Porsche, Toyota et al in the brilliantly bustling Hypercar era – at Le Mans. Newey says, “it is possible” but feels “it would be quite a big redesign of, particularly, the aerodynamics”.

“I think the rest of the car wouldn't be so bad, but the aerodynamics… well, you'd have to take the active suspension off and you would have to completely redesign the aerodynamics because it’s got far too much downforce for the LMH regulations. But the core mechanical hardware, yes, that would be perfectly capable of doing Le Mans.”

Max Verstappen has long been open about his desire to compete in the famous endurance race one day. But what about Newey?

“If somebody came along and wanted to do it, then yes, of course.”

Tantalising.

Could RB17 one day make an appearance at Le Mans?

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool