Adrian Newey reveals shocking pace of $6.2 million RB17 Hyper car enough to beat British GP pole lap time
Adrian Newey explains the lap time set by an amateur driver on the RB17 hypercar was was enough to beat the 2024 Silverstone pole time.
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Adrian Newey (via IMAGO)
Adrian Newey has decided to leave all his responsibilities at Red Bull by the end of the 2024 season. However, the aero-genius was still working on the RB17 hypercar project before leaving Milton Keynes. While talking about the car’s specifications, the technical wizard revealed the shocking pace of the RB17.
Recently, Adrian Newey revealed that an amateur driver, who isn’t a professional racer but a skilled hobbyist, tested the RB17 in a driving simulator. Surprisingly, the lap time set by the amateur in the simulator was shocking to them. He explained that lap timings would have been fast enough to take pole position at Silverstone by a whole second.
We actually had one of our customers on the simulator the other day, who is not a professional in fact but a very good amateur driver, and he in the driving simulator would have been on pole at Silverstone by one second in the car.Adrian Newey said on the official Red Bull o
channel
At first, Newey was self-conscious about the RB17’s price tag. However, he emphasized that the car, priced at around $6.2 million, was incredibly fast and worth every penny. Even in the hands of an amateur driver, its performance was outstanding. Team principal Christian Horner highlighted that even a professional driver like Max Verstappen might struggle with its handling.
Adrian Newey points out various iterations of the RB17
Adrian Newey explained that initially RB17 went through a lot of design alterations. At first the car was planned to have an electric motor on the front axle, which would have given it four-wheel drive. However, after running simulations, the team discovered that it was faster to keep the car lighter by placing the motor only on the rear axle. This resulted in a positive design choice that made the car faster by reducing unnecessary weight. Therefore, the team while designing found out that the added weight of the front motor wasn’t worth it, the car just performed better with the rear motor.
The car went through a lot of iterations. It started out as the electric motor on the front axle to give four-wheel-drive. But simulations showed us it was actually faster to save the weight and just put it on the rear axle.Adrian Newey stated.
As such, Newey discovered that placing the motor on the rear axle would make the car much faster compared to their initial choice of putting it on the front axle. As a result, the car underwent a series of tweaks and adjustments. Therefore, this decision led to significant improvements in car’s performance.
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Gaurang Kadam
(535 Articles Published)