With the curtain falling on last year’s Formula 1 season earlier than any point since 2007 – and the battle for the championships concluding long before the last race – this has been the longest winter that fans have endured for a great many years.
Finally, however, February hails the end of the drought for fans across the world. The floodgates open over the coming three weeks as teams unveil the product of their hard work over the off-season and show off the challengers with which they will do battle for the 2023 world championship.
But as launch season looms, bringing with it promise of intrigue, surprise and stoking anticipations for the return of racing, here are the trends, patterns and areas of interest to look out for as the ten teams pull the covers off their 2023 cars in the weeks to come.
Where’s the car?
Authenticity is becoming increasingly hard to come by in a world of AI-generated essays, convincing deepfake videos and anyone now able to pay for verification on Twitter. Formula 1 is no different, with teams jealously guarding the designs of their new cars to not give away anything beyond what is absolutely necessary.
As 2022 brought with it the advent of the radical new ground effect cars, teams were especially reluctant to reveal their interpretations of the new regulations, not wishing to hand their rivals any unexpected innovations on a plate before the season began. Fortunately for teams, Formula 1 itself had produced an army of generic show cars to demonstrate how the sports new rules would look in the flesh. Some teams ‘revealed’ their 2022 cars by presenting their new liveries on one of these show cars.
As 2023 beckons, expect many teams to do much the same again. Haas have described today’s event as a livery launch and Red Bull will also present their new colours on a model on Friday. Williams, next to launch, are also only presenting their new livery.
Expect other teams to hold back their most radical innovations until they absolutely have to run them. That was the case for Mercedes’ dramatic ‘sidepod-less’ upgrade last year, which appeared at the second pre-season test in Bahrain.
Ten RB18s?
Fans who decry the restrictive regulations of modern Formula 1 reducing the grid’s cars to minor variances of a theme were hopeful that last year’s new rules package could see some variety return to the sport. Thankfully, that was the case – at least for the early phase of the season.
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