A new creature
While the RB20 is preparing to dominate the 2024 Formula 1 season, in the wake of what its 'progenitor' RB19 did a year ago, the Red Bull world is also in fibrillation for the countdown towards the birth of the first, eagerly awaited Hypercar made by Milton Keynes. The car – according to its creator Adrian Newey – will have to “to be beautiful, it must look like a work of art, as I think all cars of this type should be”.
Free from any type of regulation – given that it will not be a car destined for entry into any championship – Newey and his group of engineers had total freedom from a design point of view. However, what is not clear to everyone is the origin of the name of the car, which will be renamed RB17. In fact, that acronym is usually reserved for the Austrian team's F1 cars, which from the first RB1 in 2005 to the current RB20 have always maintained the sequentiality of the numbers.
The year of Covid
So why this 'step back' to 17, especially for a car not intended for competition in the Circus? It was Newey himself who revealed this little mystery, speaking to Talking Bulls, the official podcast of the Red Bull family. Everything originates with the advent of Covid and it postponement of the new technical regulation from 2021 to 2022.
“The cause was the pandemic – explained the English designer – the RB16 was the car we raced in 2020. It would then be replaced by the RB17 for the 2021 season, but with Covid getting in the way, the change in regulations was postponed. We had to race the 2020 car in modified form for 2021, so the RB17 as an F1 car was never built (Red Bull used the RB16B instead), because then when we made the 2022 car it was baptized RB18. So 17 has always been a missing number“.
Chronological frame
At this point, simply the Hypercar project has 'appropriated' that acronym given that, in terms of time, the works began precisely in that period. “Chronologically it matched perfectly – Newey concluded – so it seemed logical to fill that void“. The RB17, developed by Red Bull Advanced Technologies, will be powered by a hybrid engine that will generate over 1100 hp and will be limited to just 50 examples.
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