With Newey having to mould most of his designs to the strict regulations of F1, the hypercar project presented a nice change of engineering freedom for the Red Bull legend.
Powered by a V10 engine, it has been described by Red Bull as a two-seater F1 car, 'showcasing F1 levels of performance combined with indulgent luxury'.
The hypercar is said to generate nearly two tonnes of downforce and has a top speed exceeding 350kph, as well as an energy recovery system.
On the design, Horner told Autocar: "There's no FIA constraints and no cost cap, so you can see influences from all these cars over the years. It has an insane amount of performance that even Max Verstappen would struggle to extract"
"Red Bull isn't an automotive manufacturer… But should somebody wish to do a road conversion on this car. I'm sure there are several conversion houses that are capable of doing that" he added.
Max Verstappen has mastered numerous Newey designs - how about the RB17?
"This is very much a halo car for us. We don't want to distract from our core competence which is building grand prix cars.
"With Red Bull Powertrains now building our own engines on site, we felt that building 50 cars over a two-to-three-year period, it is quite easy for us to slot in the manufacturing capability we have on site without distracting the business.
"That was one thing I was quite keen on: this needs to complement F1, rather than distract in any way."
Having extracted the utmost from almost all of the Newey-designed cars he has driven, Verstappen was surely already keen to get behind the wheel, but Horner's challenging comments may have given him further motivation.
Presenting the RB17 😍 Designed by Adrian Newey and Red Bull Advanced Technologies ✍️
Built on 20 years of #F1 innovation, the RB17 has over 1,000 horsepower and a V10 engine 💪 pic.twitter.com/WS53k958Pe
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 12, 2024