This Tuesday, Red Bull announced the arrival of the RB17, an exclusive hypercar of which only fifty units will be manufactured. The car, created by the prestigious designer Adrian Newey , will have to offer performance worthy of Formula 1 and will therefore be equipped with a hybrid V8 engine that will produce more than 1,100 hp.
The RB17 will have two seats and is intended for circuit use. It is possible that the first copies will be delivered as early as 2024, despite the fact that the press release speaks of 2025.
At a press conference in Milton Keynes , Red Bull team boss Christian Horner made it clear that F1 drivers Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez will be involved in the development of the RB17.
“Max has test-driven the Valkyrie a few times before and I believe he owns a copy of that vehicle as well,” Horner said. “Whether they [Max and Sergio] buy this car is entirely up to them, but we intend to use all the skills we have at home to test and develop the hypercar.”
Red Bull had previously worked with its previous title sponsor Aston Martin on the Valkyrie . Newey, who was instrumental in creating that car, said the RB17 will have “significantly more performance”.
“The Valkyrie was conceived as a road car and so of course you have to deal with all kinds of limitations, limitations that don’t exist when you’re going purely for performance. The main thing is to try to keep the weight as low as possible. The power is the easiest part at the moment, because the engine technology is so advanced. The other thing is that the aerodynamics have to work well and for that we will use some of the tricks of the past.”
“We want this car to deliver Formula 1-level performance,” continued Newey, who is in charge of the RB17 project. “But at the same time, the car has to be relatively easy to drive. You have to be able to drive it comfortably at any speed, even when you’re pushing the limits and you get into F1 level in terms of performance.”
Newey says that as a designer, he’s had quite a bit of freedom in coming up with the RB17. “Of course, you have to deal with the laws of nature,” he says. “We want to get two people in, and you have to keep in mind that those people can be quite tall as well. We also want to use the tires that are already there and of course we have to make sure the car is safe. So there are already some limiting factors. But other than that, there were practically no rules for this car.”
Those who want to have an RB17 will have to scratch in their pockets. The car is priced at £5m excluding VAT. “I have to admit that I feel a little embarrassed when the figure of 5 million pounds (about 5.8 million euros at current exchange rates) appears,” admits Newey.
“But, as Christian knows, I always spend the entire budget that is assigned to me. And even a little more.” More seriously, he commented “if you’re going to make an F1-level car, you have to deal with materials that are horribly expensive. If we add to that the cost of development and testing, unfortunately we find ourselves with a quite high sum”.
