The green flag is finally waving on the long-awaited first production car from the Formula 1 team known for leading drivers like David Coulthard, Sebastian Vettel, and Max Verstappen.
Originally announced in 2022 as the brain child of legendary Formula 1 car designer Adrian Newey and the Red Bull Advanced Technologies team, the general profile of Red Bull’s RB17 hasn’t changed a lot since then. Designed, engineered, developed, and built nearly entirely in-house, the hypercar is still driven by the desire to deliver the most extreme, F1-level performance ever seen straight from the factory to the public. Featuring a two-seater carbon fiber monocoque chassis and a fully custom hybrid V-10 engine with around 1,200 horsepower, the RB17 won’t be street legal—at least not at first—but that means you can expect track-level engineering solutions and even some extreme aerodynamic approaches that aren’t suitable for actual F1 racing, like a fan-assisted underbody, adjusted ground-sealing skirts, and a blown diffuser.
Where the car has evolved from initial concept to its now final production form lies in its design. Slightly smaller than the original model, the RB17 still retains the footprint of a modern F1 car but its external shell has been modified to improve both aesthetics and performance. The front end now features a more elaborate carbon fiber splitter for better front-downforce efficiency and hockey stick LED headlights for more of a face while the side pontoons sport more sculpted gills for better airflow management and the back end has a larger F1-style dorsal fin for better stability. Even though it’s currently a track-only car, it now also features real-world considerations like windshield wipers and side mirrors (in case you’re feeling brave in inclement track weather). Perhaps the biggest change, though, lies in the exhaust system: It now sits on the spine of the engine cover, which required significant reengineering of the car’s thermal management system to prevent bodywork from catching fire but also has the benefit of howling with the nostalgia of early 2000s F1 cars. While the interior is still being finalized, everything is going to be worked via tactile, physical controls that are simple to operate—all the better when you’re managing 3,800lbs of fan-assisted downforce.
If you’re a Formula 1 fanatic, the RB17 is just about as close to the F1 experience as you can get without being part of an actual team. The cost of such a privilege doesn’t come cheap—the price is currently estimated around a cool 6.2 million USD—but with a limited run of just 50 cars slated to begin production in 2026, the RB17 flaunts both exclusivity and unprecedented track-focused engineering in a way that might just be impossible to resist.
