The Red Bull RB17 runs in public for the first time at this week’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, with designer Adrian Newey himself among the drivers taking the track-only hypercar up the famous hillclimb.
Red Bull confirmed the RB17’s dynamic debut ahead of the festival, which opened on Thursday and runs until Sunday. Newey, who designed the car before leaving Red Bull for Aston Martin, is joined in the driving rotation by race driver Isack Hadjar, test and reserve driver Yuki Tsunoda and Red Bull Racing Academy Programme driver Alisha Palmowski.
The RB17 has been more than five years in development at Red Bull Advanced Technologies. It is built around a bespoke naturally aspirated Cosworth V10 hybrid powertrain, weighs under 900kg and targets more than 1,200bhp with a top speed beyond 350kph. Just 50 examples will be built, priced at a reported £5 million each according to Crash.net.
The car appeared as a static exhibit at Goodwood in 2024, but this weekend is the first time fans see and hear it in motion. Red Bull says the Goodwood outings form part of the RB17’s testing and development programme, so the V10 is unlikely to be pushed to its limits on the narrow hill.
The debut hands Red Bull a rare feel-good story in a summer otherwise dominated by questions over Max Verstappen’s future.
