Car of the week: Red Bull's RB17 hypercar

Once upon a time, Formula One team battles were confined to the track. Teams would go wheel to wheel on circuits around the world to prove their drivers, cars and technology was superior. But all that’s changed. Now, the F1 brawl has very much spilled out into the street, all thanks to the $6 million plus hybrid RB17 hypercar.

Designed to give the F1-inspired cars like the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Mercedes-AMG One a run for their money, it’s no surprise to discover that Adrian Newey, one of the greatest Formula One car designers, is behind both the Aston and the RB17.

Red Bull first announced the RB17 back in 2022, when Newey still had his feet under the desk at Red Bull HQ. Despite jumping ship to Aston Martin, he’s still allowed to consult on the project, although most of his aero work is done after Red Bull pulled the covers off the final design in January 2026.

The eagle eyed will spot the new hockey-stick LED front lights, refined cooling vents and sizable fin protruding from the engine cover, hinting that this might be the most aero advanced hypercar yet. Despite sharing a similar sized footprint to an actual F1 car, the RB17 will be road legal, hence the wing mirrors and windscreen wipers. One of the most significant changes has been moving the exhaust onto the spine of the engine cover. As you do.

Packing a bespoke 4.5-litre V10 developed by British engineering company Cosworth, the hybrid RB17 will rev to an ear-splitting 15,000rpm and develops over 1,000bhp. Alongside the combustion engine grunt is an e-motor, which handles reverse and adds 200bhp of electric boost. Sound familiar? Yep, that will be the 1,139bhp Cosworth V12 currently sitting at the heart of the Aston Martin Valkyrie. Let battle commence.

While the project isn’t quite finished, there’s talk of a tactile, physical controls in the cockpit – forget haptic buttons and touchscreens – and front-hinged butterfly doors rather than roof-pivoting gullwings, like the Aston Valkyrie has. With only 50 being made, expect to see an RB17 testing on track this summer, with production scheduled to start in the UK next Spring.

While we patiently wait for the road going hypercar warfare to kick off, all eyes will be on Newey’s biggest test yet as his new 2026 Aston Martin AMR26 F1 car makes its race debut in Melbourne in March. Prepare for battle both on and off-track.

Get up to speed with the latest F1 pre-season talking points and read our interview with Williams Team Principal James Vowles