This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed has shifted the focus of all F1 fans to the world of hypercars. While these cars are not like the streamlined machines you might see during a Grand Prix weekend, Formula 1 aero-engineer Adrian Newey takes as much interest in building hypercars as he does while working on the F1 cars. Thus, the Briton took up the challenge of introducing the world to two of the most formidable masterpieces that the automobile industry has right now: the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the Red Bull RB17.

As the creator of both these cars, Newey deserves all the credit for the incredible features that come with each of these. However, there are some basic differences between the two hypercars that you might want to know. Although a Red Bull engineer, Adrian Newey worked on the AMR Valkyrie as a result of Aston Martin’s agreement with RBR. On the other hand, the RB17 is a Red Bull car that never made it to the F1 race track (after the RB16 of the 2020 season, Red Bull released the RB16B for its 2021 campaign and then RB18 for 2022). Now, a prototype for the RB17 has been released at the 2024 Goodwood, exactly a year after the news about the Aston Martin Valkyrie dropped.

“You are your own competition” – Adrian Newey seems to have taken this saying to heart as he surpassed his own creation (the Valkyrie) by releasing an even better hypercar (the RB17). Now, are you wondering why the RB17 might be better than the Valkyrie in some aspects? Well, let’s get into the nitty-gritty of these two cars by comparing all the relevant points.

Engine Specifications

As the engine is the source that powers up the entire car, it has to be the first point of comparison between the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the Red Bull RB17. While the former runs on a 6.5-liter naturally-aspirated Cosworth V12 engine, the RB17 runs on a 4.5-liter naturally aspirated V-10 engine.

Regarding the engine set-up of the RB17, Adrian Newey revealed that the initial plan was to fit a twin-turbocharged V8 engine. “I wanted a power unit that was capable of developing 1000hp but with a maximum weight of 150kg on the combustion side. A turbo V8 would have certainly given that. But obviously, it doesn’t sound as good as a naturally aspirated one. I think for me, [and] a lot of people would agree, the height of the sort of audio soundtrack for Formula 1 was the high revving V10s until the end of 2005,” the 65-year-old said.

The engine of the AMR Valkyrie can produce a total of 1,000 hp at 11,100 rpm. Meanwhile, the RB17 will give the customers a power-packed ride with 1,200 horsepower at 15,000 rpm, produced by a specialized electric motor that can give 200 hp by itself.

Top Speed

As the engine specifications of the Valkyrie and the RB17 have already been discussed, the top speeds of both cars now come into question. When the Valkyrie came out, its top speed of 217 mph almost matched the average speed of an F1 car (approx. 220 mph) and this made the car a wonder in itself. However, the RB17 now boasts a top speed of 217.48 mph, which is slightly more than that of the Valkyrie, as per the F1.com website.

While many of the specifications of the RB17 are still not known since it is in the prototype stage, the Valkyrie can go from 0 to 62 mph in 2.2 seconds. This makes the Aston Martin creation almost as good as the F1 cars. Also, it has its own anti-locking system to prevent the drivers from locking up when passing through heavy braking areas.

Weight

For any supercar, the weight plays a massive role since it governs the downforce of the car. Coming to Aston Martin’s Valkyrie, its weight is around 1360kg (3000 lbs). This makes the car quite a heavy one with its weight much higher than that of the F1 cars (the least weight of an F1 race car is 908 kg with the driver in the cockpit and a full fuel load). On the other hand, the RB17 weighs around 900 kg, and it delivers a downforce of around 1699 kg (3747 lbs).

Production Details

In the first half of 2016, Aston Martin announced they would team up with Red Bull for the Valkyrie project. At that time, though, the name of the project was kept as the AM-RB 001. When the two teams finally released their creation into the market, only 150 units were manufactured. The cars sold at US$3.5 million for each model.

Now, the production of RB17 is about to go a long way before the car can reach the market. But even in its prototype stage, it has created a lot of uproar amongst automobile fanatics. According to Red Bull’s plans, only 50 exclusive units of the RB17 will be released into the market. The price is projected to be around $6.4 million, a huge jump from the price of the AMR Valkyrie.

Le Mans Chances

As the hub of competition amongst all the hypercars in the world, the 24H Le Mans might soon host the Aston Martin Valkyrie as one of its participants. A quick look at the AMR website tells us that the Silverstone house is planning to introduce the Valkyrie into Le Mans.

Aston Martin has bagged a partnership with Heart of Racing, an American racing team that has won podiums at the World Endurance Championship and the IMSA SportsCar Championship. With its help, AMR promises, that “at least one Valkyrie racecar will grace the Hyperclass class of both the FIA World Endurance Championship and IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championships” from 2025.

Meanwhile, the RB17 is currently being viewed as a track-only supercar prototype. However, Adrian Newey has confirmed that the car might be ready for the tracks at the 24H Le Mans after some time when he has finished working on it.

Thus, the comparison between the Aston Martin Valkyrie and the Red Bull RB17 shows that they are two dissimilar sides of the same coin. And the coin stays in the pocket of Adrian Newey, the great British aero wizard who has engineered both cars.

If you are given a choice, which Newey hypercar would you like to take out for a spin and why? Let us know in the comments below.