By Alan Baldwin
GOODWOOD, England (Reuters) – Formula One world champions Red Bull unveiled their RB17 hypercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed on Friday with team boss Christian Horner describing it as a compilation of departing designer Adrian Newey’s greatest hits.
Fifty cars, for track use only and capable of doing more than 350kph, are being made over the next three years and all have been sold already at nearly six million pounds ($7.77 million) each.
The two-seater builds on Red Bull’s 20 years in Formula One, with six constructors’ titles and seven drivers’ crowns won — the last three with Max Verstappen — as well as Newey’s dominant designs for Williams and McLaren in the 1990s.
“This car is basically Adrian’s utopia, it’s him let off the leash,” Horner told reporters. “It’s going to be the most extreme track car of all time.
“There’s no FIA constraints, no cost cap. You can see influences from all his cars over the years … it’s all the good stuff they (Formula One) got rid of.
“Really it’s a celebration now of Adrian’s time with the team.”
Newey, 65, is regarded as one of the greatest designers in the history of the sport with rival teams — particularly Ferrari and Aston Martin — eager to recruit him after the Briton announced he would be leaving next year.
He has not said where he might end up next season and did not discuss it on Friday.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES
“RB17 really is pushing the boundaries of everything we’ve learned into one car,” said Newey, who also designed the road legal Valkyrie hypercar with Red Bull’s former partners Aston Martin.
The Red Bull weighs under 900kg with a mid-mounted naturally-aspirated V10 Cosworth engine delivering 1,000 horsepower, along with a 200hp electric motor.
“It has an insane amount of performance,” said Horner. “Even Max Verstappen would struggle to extract the amount of performance this car has, such is the level of downforce.
“The RB17 will be quicker at certain circuits than a Formula One car.
“(Red Bull F1 reserve driver) Liam Lawson drove the car on a simulator the other day and I think his eyes were very wide open.”
Red Bull Advanced Technologies is responsible for the entire build process.
Each car will be bespoke with owners, carefully chosen by Red Bull, offered assistance in running it at track events and driver development.
“Buying this car is about the experience. We don’t want these cars to sit in collectors’ museums,” said Horner. “Part of the ownership of these cars is going to be doing track days … they are designed to be run, to be driven.”
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, who once used a Valkyrie to grill a cheese sandwich by firing up the engine with some hot laps around a circuit, was present at the launch.
The RB17 name comes from a gap left in the sequence of F1 cars, with the 2021 model named the RB16B and the 2022 version becoming the RB18.
($1 = 0.7718 pounds)
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris)
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