If anyone thinks that F1's most renowned designer Adrian Newey gets complete freedom when it comes to designing cars for Red Bull then think again. F1's notoriously restrictive rule book puts pay to that but, unsurprisingly for a man with his ingenuity, Newey has found a way to completely unchain his creative juices.

No, it isn't designing an America's Cup yacht as he was believed to be interested in doing in years gone by. Instead, as Pitpass revealed earlier this year, Red Bull has been involved with the development of Gran Turismo, the leading videogame racing series on Sony's PlayStation console.

Sebastian Vettel recently featured on one of the trailers for GT5, the latest edition in the series, saying, "Hi, my name is Sebastian Vettel. We reach around 400kmh (250 mph) on the straightaway." At first it was thought that Red Bull would be making its F1 car playable in the game, as Ferrari has done in previous editions, however it seems that the partnership runs even deeper than that.

The game's car-fanatic designer Kazunori Yamauchi met Newey at Red Bull's HQ in Milton Keynes and convinced him to throw out the rulebook and design exclusively for GT5 a car which would push the boundaries of motorsports. Red Bull has now revealed that this car is called the X1 Prototype.

"Every race conforms to some sort of regulation, and every racing car is built to fit within those various regulations," says Yamauchi adding that "the X1 is something new, created from a 'what-if' dream. We want to inspire racing fans and the industry alike by exploring the realm of possibilities for the future of motorsports."

This sounds just like what F1 itself should be doing and it reminded Pitpass' business editor Chris Sylt of interviews he did in 2005 for his book 'The Business of Formula One.' When he asked some of F1's most senior figures how they thought the sport would look in just 10 years he was surprised that most of them could barely answer the question as it seemed they hadn't thought that far down the line. Not so Adrian Newey.

"We all have a dream about pushing the boundaries, where the performance of the car and the experience of the driver take precedence over the rules," he says. The X1 is testament to this. On his first virtual lap in the X1, Sebastian Vettel beat the Suzuka lap record (1:31.540), set by Kimi Raikkonen in 2005, by more than 20 seconds. Now that is something for F1 to aim for.

"Adrian's dream car handled brilliantly," says Vettel. "There are few tracks that reward bravery and commitment more than Suzuka and I can't think of a better way to experience the pace and performance of the X1 Prototype than going through 130R at full throttle."

Red Bull and Sony are still keeping the appearance of the X1 under wraps but videogame and racing fans alike don't have long to wait to see it as GT5 launches on 5 November. It could be worth a look for this alone because, as Sylt discovered, you will be hard pressed to glean any details elsewhere on what lies in store for the future of F1.