Fernando Alonso has been voted as the best new signing of 2023, with many expecting the double World Champion to take Aston Martin to new heights following his switch from Alpine.
The 2022 silly season was arguably the craziest that Formula 1 has ever seen, with six teams on the grid having a new line-up for the upcoming season.
The first of those is, as mentioned, Aston Martin, with Alonso having departed Alpine having spent two years back at the Enstone-based outfit.
Alonso, of course, claimed both of his World Championships for the Enstone squad in 2005 and 2006, whilst they were known as Renault.
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Alonso is replacing four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel, who announced prior to the Hungarian Grand Prix that he was going to retire from F1 at the end of 2022.
With Alonso having departed Alpine to replace Vettel, the French side have hired Pierre Gasly to replace the 41-year-old.
The signing of Gasly means Alpine will have an all-French set-up for 2023, with Gasly partnering fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon at the French team.
To take Alonso’s place at Alpine, Gasly had to leave not only the Red Bull family but also AlphaTauri, who he’s spent five years racing for.
Instead of promoting a Red Bull Junior driver to replace Gasly, the Faenza-based team have brought former Mercedes reserve driver Nyck de Vries into the team, with the Dutchman set to make his full rookie appearance.
The 2019 F2 World Champion and Season Seven Formula E World Champion caught AlphaTauri’s eye after he scored points for Williams at Monza, after stepping-in for Alex Albon from FP3 onwards.
This has resulted in Mercedes having to sign a new reserve driver, something they quickly did after the conclusion of their worst season of the hybrid era.
The Germans have signed Mick Schumacher as their new reserve driver after the 23-year-old was dropped by Haas, with the Americans having decided to sign the experienced Nico Hulkenberg.
Hulkenberg will compete full-time in F1 for the first-time since 2019 in the upcoming season; however, he does offer Haas an incredible amount of experience.
It wasn’t just Schumacher who was dropped for 2023, with Daniel Ricciardo having had his contract terminated for this season following a miserable two-year spell with the Woking-based outfit.
Replacing Ricciardo at McLaren for 2023 is, of course, fellow Australian Oscar Piastri, who joins McLaren after leaving his role as Alpine’s reserve driver.
Nicholas Latifi was another driver who was dropped for 2023, with the Canadian having performed woefully since crashing at the 2021 season finale, an incident that understandably seems to have affected his confidence.
Taking Latifi’s place is Williams Academy driver Logan Sargeant, meaning that an American driver will finally be present on the F1 grid, something that’ll for sure go down extremely well at the three races across the pond this year.
With so many signings having been made (without even considering the team principals), GPFans asked their readers which signing was the best.
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Alonso claimed top spot comfortably with 51-percent of voters hailing him as the best new signing, with Gasly coming in second spot with 17-percent.
Rounding off the top three is Nyck de Vries with 12-percent; however, he is closely followed by Oscar Piastri on 11-percent.
Trailing at the back are Hulkenberg on six percent, and Sargeant on four percent.