Adrian Newey's screaming V10 Red Bull RB17 finally runs, and it's a monster
The wildest track car of the modern era finally turns a wheel
The most extreme track car of the modern era is finally moving under its own power. Adrian Newey's Red Bull RB17, a 1,200 hp hypercar with a naturally aspirated V10 that revs to a delirious 15,000 rpm, has made its first dynamic run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, and the great man himself is driving it. After being shown as a static model back in 2024, seeing and hearing it move is a very big deal.
A 15,000 rpm V10, and then some
The heart of the RB17 is a masterpiece. It uses a bespoke Cosworth-built 4.5-litre naturally aspirated V10 producing around 1,000 hp on its own and screaming to an almost unbelievable 15,000 rpm, an rpm ceiling and a soundtrack straight out of Formula 1's golden era. Add a 200 hp electric motor and the total is more than 1,200 hp. In an age of turbos and heavy hybrids, a howling, high-revving naturally aspirated V10 like this is about as special as engines get.
Lighter than a hot hatch, faster than an F1 car
The numbers barely make sense. The RB17 weighs less than 900 kg, so with over 1,200 hp its power-to-weight ratio is deep into fantasy territory. It targets a staggering 1,700 kg of downforce, tops out beyond 350 km/h, pulls around 5G under braking and is engineered to lap circuits at times comparable to a modern Formula 1 car. This is a track-only device built with no compromises for the road, essentially a two-seat F1 car you can own.
Who's driving it
There is a lovely symmetry to the driver line-up. Fittingly, the RB17 is being driven at Goodwood by Adrian Newey himself, the legendary aerodynamicist who designed it, in a brief return to Red Bull duty. He is joined by Red Bull Racing's Isack Hadjar, reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull Academy driver Alisha Palmowski, a proper spread of talent to show off what the car can do on the famous hill.
Rare and eye-wateringly expensive
As you would expect, the RB17 is both rare and enormously expensive. Red Bull Advanced Technologies will build just 50 examples, priced at around 5 million pounds each, with production getting under way in 2026. Every one is spoken for by a tiny group of collectors who will get to experience a car engineered to genuine Formula 1 performance levels, without the rulebook.
AutoNext Take
This might be the most exciting car of the entire Goodwood weekend, and that is saying something. Adrian Newey is the greatest racing-car designer of his generation, and the RB17 is his no-limits vision of what a track car can be, so watching it finally run, driven by the man himself, is the stuff of goosebumps. But honestly, it is the engine that has us weak: a naturally aspirated V10 revving to 15,000 rpm is a glorious middle finger to the turbocharged, electrified present, and its sound alone justifies the whole project. We may never get to drive one, or even see one in the flesh, but a car this pure and this extreme existing at all makes us happy. It caps a stellar Festival of Speed that has become one of Europe's biggest car events, the same stage that hosted the Pagani Huayra 70 Derecho and the manual Hennessey Venom F5-M.
