Red Bull’s V10-powered RB17 hypercar to scream into life
Famed racing designer Adrian Newey will return to Red Bull this weekend, as the RB17 hypercar finally gets revealed to the public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Four years on from when it was first announced, the Red Bull RB17 will make its first public appearance this weekend, with its Cosworth V10 engine set to howl at Goodwood.
The result of Red Bull Advanced Technologies’ development and the design of former Red Bull Racing Chief Technical Officer Adrian Newey, it has been a long road for the RB17 to get here, arriving a year later than first planned.
Newey himself will get to drive the first running RB17 up the Goodwood Festival of Speed’s famed hillclimb, despite moving to rival Formula One team Aston Martin as team principal this year, ironically the same company he designed the Valkyrie hypercar for while it had a relationship with Red Bull.
Also set to drive the RB17 will be current Red Bull Racing F1 driver Isack Hadjar, Red Bull test and reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda, plus Red Bull Racing F1 Academy Programme driver Alisha Palmowski.
While all eyes will be on the radical design of the RB17, all ears will be focused on its Cosworth V10 engine, with the 4.5-litre hybrid-assisted unit claimed to be able to make more than 890kW combined.
Drive will be sent to the rear wheels only through a six-speed transmission, while there’s also active suspension under the skin, something which Newey used to great effect in designing the championship winning Williams FW14B (1992) and FW15C (1993).
“At Red Bull, we're at our best when we're taking on challenges that others might consider impossible. RB17 is exactly that,” said Red Bull Advanced Technologies Technical Director, Rob Gray.
“The ambition was to create a car capable of delivering a level of performance rarely seen outside Formula One, while remaining true to the original vision that inspired the project. The engineering challenge has been immense.
“We set out to deliver Formula One-inspired levels of performance in a customer track car, requiring us to solve countless challenges across design, engineering, validation, testing and manufacture. One of the things I'm proudest of is how closely the finished car reflects the original vision.
“Its dynamic debut at Goodwood marks an important milestone in the programme, as we continue to validate and develop the car in real-world conditions and explore its full performance potential.”
It’s expected that only 50 RB17s will be produced.
Red Bull's RB17 hypercar
