Alpine have launched their 2023 challenger in an event in London. Alpine are the last team to launch their car for 2023 and will be hoping to hold onto fourth place and push closer to the top three on the grid.
THE A523
Alpine’s 2023 challenger has a solid foundation to build on, however they are hoping to reduce the frailty of the Renault Power Unit, which contributed to a closer battle with McLaren than was necessary. Alpine will need to hope that the A523 will solidify fourth place and then begin to close the gap on Ferrari, Mercedes and Redbull.
There is no doubt that Alpine has produced a fast car in 2022, however they will need to keep the speed and ensure reliability on a consistent basis.
BLACK IS BACK
The A523 was unveiled with two variations of the livery, one in BWT pink, that will race in a few races, in a similar way to 2022. The main livery is Alpine blue with pink on the sidepods, however, in keeping with the theme of 2023, there is more black/bare carbon on show than previous years, this will no doubt be in an effort to save a few grams of weight.
NEW DRIVERS
The biggest change to 2022, is the addition of Pierre Gasly to replace the departed Fernando Alonso. Perrie finally managed to escape the Redbull shadow. It will be interesting to see how Gasly can perform outside of the Redbull fold and against Esteban Ocon, who he knows over the course of his career. Also announced at the launch, was that F2 driver Jack Doohan will be the teams reserve driver for 2023. Jack was not at the launch due to his testing commitments with F2.
TECH CHAT
In what is quite refreshing change to some of the other teams, Alpine discussed some of the changes to the A523, running through some of the technical aspects of the new car. In, what can be seen as a big achievement, the team were able to bring the car under weight (I’m sure the lack of paint helped), meaning that they will be able to distribute ballast to help optimize balance and weight distribution.
RAC(H)ER
Alpine promoted their “RAC(H)ER” program, launched in 2022 with the aim to increase Alpine’s proportion of female engineers by 30% by 2027. The French team will also develop and assist female drivers using bespoke training and scientific research.
Nicola Adams and Zara Rutherford were the first to be announced as part of the RAC(H)ER brand as ambassadors and and mentors, others included were Sophia Florsch and Abbi Pulling, who will race under the Alpine driver Academy banner in Formula 3 and F1 Academy respectively.
ZEDANE?
In one of the more bizarre moments of the night was the addition of former world cup winner Zinedine Zidane to the stage, he will an Alpine brand ambassador.