Why Red Bull’s RB17 hypercar can help its F1 team

After four decades of ideas and innovation in creating some of the greatest ever Formula 1 cars, you would think that Adrian Newey’s enthusiasm for design projects would be waning just a little bit.

A look up and down the pitlane shows that many of his peers have long hung up their drawing boards and departed the intensity of the grand prix paddocks for a quieter life elsewhere. But as chief technical officer at Red Bull, Newey is still as hungry for success as he has ever been. And while it may be fair to say that his foot is not as flat on the accelerator as in the formative years of his career, Newey's desire is still as strong when it comes to wanting his ideas transformed in to real life.

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner has been aware since Newey joined the team that finding the right work/F1/life balance was essential to keep him interested and sharp, thereby maximising his potential. This reasoning was part of the reason for the creation of Red Bull’s Advanced Technology division in the first place.

This would allow Newey to thrive on doing the bits in F1 he loved (and help make its grand prix cars successful), while ensuring his design juices could keep flowing with enthusiasm by helping other parts of the business. What has been especially important for Red Bull is in keeping Newey fully fired up at times when competitive fortunes on track were not so good.

It’s one thing to love throwing everything at an F1 project when it is racking up wins every two weeks, but quite another to be doing it when rules or circumstance beyond your control mean you have no chance of doing well. That is why Red Bull’s involvement in the Aston Martin Valkyrie project from 2014 until recently was so important for keeping Newey busy at a time when the team’s competitive headaches with the Renault turbo hybrid engine were at their peak.

But with Red Bull's input into the Valkyrie project having reached its conclusion, it was clear Newey would be itching to find something else to keep him fresh – which is why it’s ultimately no huge shock that Red Bull has announced plans to take things to the next level, with its own ‘no rules’ hypercar.

Sideline projects such as the Valkyrie have kept Newey's fire burning to help Red Bull's F1 aspirations

Photo by: Carl Bingham / Motorsport Images

Hearing from Newey at the RB17's announcement, it is clear just why Red Bull is so happy to give him something to get his teeth into rather than thwart his ambitions; for it knows how much he is fuelled by this kind of thing.

“I think certainly having other projects in mind, or on the go, I do find stimulating,” he admitted. “Certainly when I started working on the car that became the [Valkyrie] hypercar in 2014, it was with that mindset as much as having a slump in competitiveness with a power unit that was a bit behind. I wanted something else to put my energy into, as well as Formula 1. I’m intrigued by different avenues and applying what I’ve learned over the years into different things as well as Formula 1.

“It’s also something that I probably put too many weekend hours into. The first drawing I did for this car was actually done in-between Christmas and New Year in 2020. It was COVID, so we couldn’t get out to skiing or go to South Africa where my wife is from. So I used that time instead to start drawing this. I’ve been in Formula 1 for four decades now, and I still find it tremendously enjoyable, but I do like to have other interests as well, and this is one of them.”

The benefits of Red Bull opting to green-light projects like the RB17 stretch far beyond just keeping Newey happy though. On a purely competitive level, there can be some knock-on gains for the F1 team directly.

"It’s enabled us to bring in new talent and develop talent as well. Obviously Formula 1 dominates what we do, but coming out of that are more and more activities" Christian Horner

It must not be overlooked, for example, that some of the pointers that he and Advanced Technologies got from designing and developing the Valkyrie helped frame the concept of Red Bull’s current RB18 – one of the few cars that has not suffered much from porpoising.

“It’s interesting because researching the Valkyrie, which is a ground effect tunnel car, some of the things we learned on that were very useful when we started researching what has become the RB18, because it’s a venturi car that we haven’t had in Formula 1 since 1983,” smiled Newey when asked if there were even gains to be had from the F1 team from this extra work.

But Red Bull sees a much wider benefit in throwing its weight behind something as ambitious as the RB17 because, in the cost cap era of F1, the game has changed for teams in terms of managing, nurturing and motivating staff. Where once it was said F1 teams needed to expand horizons with technology offshoots to help feed the bottomless pit of cash needed to keep a grand prix operation on the road; now the whole financial mindset has changed.

A boom of interest in F1 sponsorship and an uplift in commercial rights income, amid the strict cost cap limits, means teams aren’t in search of extra cash; they actually can’t spend enough. The challenge is actually in ensuring the organisation operates as efficiently as it can.

Lessons learned on the Valkyrie fed into the current RB18 F1 car

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Highly valued staff have had to be taken out of direct employment from an F1 team not because they aren’t good enough, but because their talents aren’t an essential spend. And it makes little sense for outfits to simply let them go completely, potentially to rival squads, when they are so skilled.

Creating opportunities for these personnel through independent projects like RB17 keeps them within the family, develops their skills, and makes them (and new personnel coming through) available for the moment when they may be needed by the F1 operation.

“Our staff are our biggest asset,” explained Horner. “And with the advent of the financial regulations, whilst Advanced Technologies has existed since 2014 and has been growing and developing in its own right, what it has enabled us to do is re-home staff that otherwise would have been lost to the business who are incredibly capable.

“It’s enabled us to maintain that talent within the group. It’s enabled us to bring in new talent and develop talent as well. So on the campus here, it’s not just purely centric to Formula 1.

“Obviously Formula 1 dominates what we do, but coming out of that are more and more activities, with [Red Bull] Powertrains coming online as well. With the Advanced Technologies activities, we’re working in collaboration with BMC on bikes, we’re involved in IndyCar [supplier of the Aeroscreen] and America’s Cup. We’re designing a submarine for up to three to four passengers.

“We’ve got many different projects going on. With that variance as well, being able to maintain and attract talent, has been incredibly important to us.”

From the next wave of talent coming in to F1, to a stalwart like Newey who is still at the peak of his game, it is clear Red Bull’s plans for the RB17 are motivated by much more than selling a few luxury £5 million track cars.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB18

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images