Two anticipated trends in 2023 Formula 1 car design were evident in the first new chassis presented for the upcoming season today.
While Red Bull, Haas and Williams relied on models or old cars to reveal their new liveries over the past week, Alfa Romeo became the first team to show something approaching a genuine 2023 machine.
Their video broadcast showed Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu revealing the car in a similar configuration to what they will run when testing begins in Bahrain in two weeks’ time. The team also issued images of its car in launch specification.
One obvious change is the shift towards a darker livery, just as fellow Ferrari power unit customers Haas have done. Teams have been removing paint and exposing the carbon fibre beneath for years in an effort to save weight, but the introduction of new regulations last year prompted many to go a step further. It’s striking that Alfa Romeo, who began last year with one of the lightest cars, has felt the need to do the same.
A similarly striking revision is apparent in the profile of the C43’s sidepods. They slope downwards much more steeply at the end, echoing the successful design employed by dominant 2022 champions Red Bull.
Alfa Romeo’s technical director Jan Monchaux freely admits the team were “stuck in a corner” with the design they adopted last year and had to wait until the off-season before adopting the “better solutions” observed on rivals’ cars. He said the C43 is “well born” and “looks mean”.
“Not only the new geometries, but also the livery which gives it an additional level of being mean. I find the car pretty sexy,” he added.
Having risen two places to sixth in the championship last year, Alfa Romeo have had their allocation of car development time fall by more than any other team – including Red Bull after their penalty for breaking F1’s financial regulations. They have focused their resources on improving the rear of the car, where they felt they had the most gains to make.
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Rear end
Alfa Romeo began the 2022 season in good shape. Valtteri Bottas put his C42 on the third row of the grid for the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix and scored the team’s best result of the season with fifth place in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix the following month as Alfa Romeo made the most of having a lighter car than their rivals.
However the team realised…
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