INTERVIEW: Adrian Newey reveals all after his first drive in the RB17 at Goodwood

It’s also a very different project to what he’s traditionally worked on for more than 40 years, since he first worked as a designer for March in the early 1980s. His cars started winning Championships almost immediately, and Newey’s creative prowess has driven success in IMSA GT, IndyCar and Formula 1. 

“It’s not simply chasing lap times,” he told us when we caught up with him after his first run in the car. “It’s trying to chase something that’s more holistic. 

“There’s lap time of course, but it’s also a piece of art that’s friendly to a wide variety of people. It’s a more diverse way of thinking, and as an engineer that enjoys design, I’ve loved that challenge.” 

A challenge that is now on the verge of completion, at the end of a remarkable development process that has seen pretty much everything about the car change over the past 12 months since we last saw it here at Goodwood. 

Newey has of course played a slightly less integral role in the day-to-day project since his departure from Red Bull in 2024, but the team charged with continuing the project have remained faithful to his vision. 

“The timing was very good. After I stopped in F1 in May 2024, I kept working on the RB17 until around October or November, and by then all the main engineering and aerodynamic decisions were made.  

“The last thing I drew before I left was the wing mirrors, and after that it was really just detail design, which I had complete trust in the team to complete.” 

At the head of the team tasked with completing the RB17 project was Rob Gray, Technical Director of Red Bull Advanced Technologies. 

"We've taken Adrian's vision and turned it into a real thing," said Gray, who has worked with Newey on the project from the very beginning. "We had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted and what he expected." 

But the complexity, he explained, came from the fact that the RB17 is an entirely new creation. "We're not basing this on any existing car; the whole thing has been designed from a clean sheet of paper." 

That includes the engine, which is a bespoke design for the RB17. The suspension has been specially produced, there's really very little at all on this car that you'll be able to find anywhere else. Newey is well known for pushing the envelope of car design, and there's abundant evidence of his ambition here. 

Having been such a long-time colleague of Newey's, Gray was well-placed to temper that enthusiasm in some areas where perhaps the vision was a step too far away from reality. At an early stage of development, it was Newey's intent to incorporate the trick braking system that he had helped pioneer with McLaren back in the late 1990s. 

By adding a third pedal in the cockpit, it allowed the drivers to brake a single rear wheel, which delivered a huge benefit on turn in and went a long way to securing the World Championship for McLaren and Mika Häkkinen. 

"That was a step too far," Gray said, "but generally we've delivered most of the things he was after." 

All that said, Newey told us he will still be “skiving off” from his day job from time to time to keep a very close eye on the car’s development now that it’s up and running, as the RB17's evolution continues even now, despite having been revealed to the public at Goodwood back in 2024. 

In fact, that car we all saw for the first time at the Festival of Speed has very little left to do with the version that ran on the Hill two years later. Virtually everything about this latest iteration has been developed.

"There's not one surface that hasn't actually changed," Gray noted. "The general concept looks very similar, but there's a lot of refinement to make the car work in all the conditions it needs to work in." 

The wheel arches in particular have undergone a substantial overhaul, the sidepods have been tweaked to optimise cooling, really from every angle you can see that what was just a styling concept one year ago has been transformed into a functional car. 

And through it all are the unmistakeable fingerprints of Adrian Newey, the man whose cars have won 12 Formula 1 Constructors' Championships, 14 F1 Drivers' titles, more than 200 Grands Prix, two IndyCar Championships, two Indianapolis 500s, two IMSA GT Championships and a Daytona 24 Hours. 

His inimitable style that shrink wraps the bodywork around the inner mechanicals, which themselves have been packaged with millimetre precision to optimise airflow and performance. 

We'll find out in good time just how good the RB17 is, but Newey’s beaming smile at the Festival of Speed suggests we can all look forward to something rather special. 

The 2027 Festival of Speed will take place on 15th-18th July 2027, sign up for ticket alerts to make sure you don't miss out. Tickets are available for GRRC Members and Fellows, you can join the Fellowship today.

Main image photography by Joe Harding.