Adrian Newey is widely, and correctly, regarded as one of the greatest engineers in Formula One.
Since he began designing Formula One cars in the late eighties, he has been partly responsible for no fewer than ten World Constructors' Championships and helped Nigel Mansell, Alain Prost, Damon Hill, Jacques Villeneuve, Mika Hakkinnen and Sebastian Vettel on their way to winning a combined ten drivers' titles.
In short, the man is a genius.
Unfortunately, Formula One is arguably quite a poor showcase for a mind as fertile and creative as Newey's. The regulations which govern the cars are unbelievably restrictive and as a result of this the cars are nowhere near as fast as they could be if the engineers were given free rein to design what they want.
Luckily for us, that's exactly what Newey has done -- well, sort of. Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the Red Bull X2014 concept.
Unveiled today at the launch party for the new Gran Turismo 6 Playstation game, the Red Bull X2014 is confined purely to the world of ones and zeros. It isn't the first attempt Red Bull has had at creating a purely digital racer, following on from 2010's X1 concept which featured a 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6 which developed 1483bhp and could hit a theoretical top speed of 249mph.
Although details on the new car are scarce, Red Bull has teased us with one tantalising piece of trivia -- the X2014 is 30 seconds a lap faster around a virtual Nurburgring than Sebastian Vettel in his RB9.
Three versions of the car will be available for GT6: the Red Bull X2014 Standard car, the Red Bull X2014 Junior car and, best of all, the Red Bull X2014 Fan car, which uses -- you guessed it -- a fan to provide massive downforce, boost cornering speeds and help the car deliver mega lap times.
So, when you're watching Mr Vettel and co. pedalling their new 1.6-litre motors around Melbourne next March, take a moment to ponder what F1 would be like if the F1 engineers got the chance to let their imaginations run free.
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