New Adrian Newey design project comes to light as Red Bull creative juices flow

Red Bull’s Adrian Newey is involved in the design of a submarine, revealing the project that was a wish of Red Bull Racing’s late founder Dietrich Mateschitz.

Newey is regarded as one of the greatest designers Formula 1 has ever seen, having designed title-winning cars for Williams, McLaren and Red Bull.

The latest creation which he oversaw, the Red Bull RB19, has claimed an incredible 19 of the 20 grand prix victories on offer in F1 2023.

Adrian Newey working on submarine project

Red Bull Racing was rocked last year by the news that their founder Dietrich Mateschitz had passed away, but Newey pushes on with a submarine project commissioned by Mateschitz, which he had wanted for moving around his private island and beyond.

“It’s a great shame he won’t get to see it completed,” Newey told The Telegraph. “I’m actually a bit nervous of it! Even before the recent well-publicised accident with the Titanic submersible.

“But we’re quite rightly doing it in partnership with submarine experts. And we’re not targeting sea depths…Dietrich’s brief was he wanted one that was easy to move around [his private] island and which he could launch from different sites.”

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But while Newey is putting his efforts into the design of the submarine, climbing in it is perhaps as far as his involvement will go beyond that point.

“That’s the acid test isn’t it!” he said with a smile when asked if he would go in. “I’ll get in it…”

Newey’s focus in recent years has shifted across the Red Bull spectrum, rather than being solely focused on their Formula 1 machinery.

Recently he worked in collaboration with Aston Martin to create the Valkyrie sportscar – Red Bull team boss Christian Horner joking that Newey almost bankrupted Aston Martin in the process – and now he has a fresh project, alongside the submarine, to get stuck into.

Newey is to design the Red Bull RB17, a two-seat hypercar, with production scheduled to start in 2025.

And with all due respect to Aston Martin, Newey is looking forward at a “second crack” in this world of high-performance cars, independent from an OEM [Original Equipment Manufacturer].

“I remember when I was at McLaren, Gordon Murray was working with Mercedes on the SLR, which he also found a very frustrating project, working with a manufacturer,” said Newey.

“Not for one moment to criticise Aston Martin, but the way an OEM goes about research, design, test and build… and how we go about the same procedure… is very different. So the opportunity now to do a second car, a two-seat focused project, is a chance to have a second crack.”

On the Formula 1 front meanwhile, Red Bull has long since been focusing on their F1 2024 challenger, the RB20, which has an incredibly high bar to aim for after the successes of the RB19.

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