Adrian Newey builds rocket ship faster than any F1 car, but Aston Martin can't use it

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Adrian Newey builds rocket ship faster than any F1 car, but Aston Martin can't use it

Newey has worked on championship-winning F1 cars, but his most impressive design could be yet to come

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Tuesday 5 May 2026 20:57

Adrian Newey's F1 genius has contributed to a whopping 12 constructors' championships across his esteemed career in motorsport, but he is yet to bring success to Aston Martin.

When the British engineer announced his exit from Red Bull in May 2024, Canadian billionaire and F1 team owner Lawrence Stroll jumped at the opportunity to throw money at Newey in hope of it boosting Aston Martin's championship chances.

With Newey having signed on the dotted line and Honda onboard as their power unit providers, Aston Martin were looking forward to a fresh start in 2026.

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But the sad reality is that they have done nothing but create more problems for themselves in 2026, with last weekend's Miami Grand Prix the first time that both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were able to make it across the finish line.

So whilst Newey and his new squad continue to piece together the puzzle that is their numerous power unit and chassis issues, his former Red Bull team are still enjoying the fruits of his labour.

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Newey's parting gift to Red Bull could be best work yet

Amid Newey's demanding first full season as Aston Martin's team principal and Managing Technical Partner, the 67-year-old's final Red Bull design is still being developed in Milton Keynes.

The RB17, the V10 hypercar previously described as Newey's parting gift to Red Bull, has now entered its final build phase according to Autocar.

The production target of the Newey-designed rocket ship is 50 units, with the current plan to launch the soon to be iconic vehicle in spring 2027, delivering to a high-end client list over the next two years.

The RB17 label was never used in F1 and has instead been dedicated to mark Newey's legacy with the energy drink giants.

The track-only hypercar produced by Red Bull Advanced Technologies (an arm of the Red Bull Racing Group) weighs 900kg and boasts 1200bhp, 1000 of which will come from the V10 engine, with the other 200bhp deriving from an electric drive motor.

The groundbreaking Newey-designed model debuted at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed, but the dimensions and proportions have developed significantly since then.

It is engineered to be faster than a modern F1 car, and recent virtual estimations have proved this "on a variety of circuits" including Spa, which is said to be notionally at least one second quicker than a current F1 car, at around 1min 38seconds.

The final assembly of the model is currently taking place on the same Milton Keynes site as Red Bull's F1 development, with £5 million hypercars on schedule to begin circuit testing and development "within a few weeks".

The RB17's chassis was mostly settled upon by the end of 2023, but it Newey was frozen out of the project before leaving Red Bull to head to Aston Martin in 2025.

Despite this, Technical Director and programme chief Rob Gray has maintained his aim of sticking to Newey's vision, telling Autocar: "All we have to do is deliver the car Adrian wanted".

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