Alpine have become the fourth Formula 1 team to announce the launch plans for their 2023 car. They will present the new A523 on February 16th.
The launch will take place in London. It will be Alpine’s third F1 car since the rebranding of the Renault team ahead of the 2021 season, when it took on the name of its sister sports car brand.
The French-owned, British-based team rose to fourth place in the constructors’ championship last year, despite failing to repeat the win they scored in 2021. Their best result was only a fourth place, achieved by Esteban Ocon at the Japanese Grand Prix, but they scored in 19 races out of 22 and had both cars finish in the points on 11 occasions.
Ocon will be partnered this season by Pierre Gasly, who joins the team from AlphaTauri after Fernando Alonso left for Aston Martin.
There will however be continuity in the management of Alpine this year, with several changes to how the team is run having been made since it became Alpine. Otmar Sazfnauer will continue to be team principal, and is now one of the longest serving in F1 despite only starting his job in February 2022, while Pat Fry is chief technical officer and Matt Harman is technical director.
The team is yet to announce who their reserve driver will be. Oscar Piastri was initially expected to continue in role before he was offered a race seat as the replacement of Alonso. However he rejected that seat and left for McLaren, who he will now make his F1 debut with.
Instead, Piastri’s fellow Australian Jack Doohan is the leading contender to be Alpine reserve. The Formula 2 racer has already tested with the team and appeared in an F1 practice session, and is part of the Alpine Academy.
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