Whilst Alpine aren’t launching their 2023 challenger (the A523) until February 16, the Enstone-based outfit have given fans a “snippet” of what to possibly expect, with there being a noticeable similarity to a 2022 design.
Alpine released a video onto social media showing their new car’s sidepods and cockpit, with it looking incredibly similar to Red Bull’s successful 2022 design.
Red Bull, of course, claimed 17 victories last season with the mighty RB18, a car that Alpine have seemingly taken inspiration from.
The video shows that the French side have opted for a steeper groove down the flank of the sidepods, running alongside the cockpit where Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly will be sitting for the forthcoming season.
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Alpine’s social media post also shows that the team have focused somewhat on making sure the air is channelled towards the floor at the back of the engine, with a virtually instant drop-off being visible behind the air intake.
2023 will be a big year for Alpine to build on their fourth-place finish in last season’s Constructors’ Championship, with the side likely to be up against strong competition from McLaren and Aston Martin.
Aston Martin have the added benefit of former Alpine driver Fernando Alonso this year, after the Spaniard opted to leave Enstone to replace the retired Sebastian Vettel.
Finding a replacement for Alonso wasn’t easy, with 2021 F2 World Champion Oscar Piastri having publicly rejected the seat.
Signing Gasly, though, is a great alternative and should help the side find some consistency this season, should they get on top of the reliability issues that scarred Alonso’s 2022 campaign.
The double World Champion retired from six races in 2022 following reliability issues, with the team’s Renault power unit having been a handful.
Team principal Otmar Szafnauer has confirmed that the same hopefully won’t be experienced in 2023, with the Romanian-American believing that the team’s powertrain will be “more reliable”.
“We should have a more reliable powertrain next year,” Szafnauer told RACER.
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“Even though some of the issues we had weren’t really with the powertrain, they were with the ancillary bits. We have to redesign those and fix them.
“I think if we can do that with the powertrain being frozen – and I have every confidence that we will – then I think we’ll naturally score more points.
“So if we just do that and the performance level stays relatively the same we should be further up the road. So that’s our focus.”