https://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/for ... 3-chassis/
New or old chassis for 2023?
nderbody update for Austin
Hinwil put pressure on development in the early stages. It paid off. Then there was a lull for a long time as far as new developments were concerned. The opponents caught up. Alfa does not exhaust the budget cap. The upper limit should be around ten million US dollars in 2022. There is no money for development. And a small team cannot produce parts that quickly.
At the GP Japan, Sauber followed up on a larger scale for the first time. The engineers shortened the nose, which therefore had to go through the crash test again. And they baked a new front wing. There were also new parts in the invisible area. In Austin they want to improve the underbody. Little things, as they say.
So there was some underbody upgrades at Japan already, and they will make some further tweaks there at Austin. Interesting that they went through crash tests again for the nose; basically confirms that their new FW & nose is the 2023 spec.
The new front end brought satisfactory progress. "In general, it increases the overall contact pressure somewhat. And it gives us a better balance between slow and fast corners,"
Teams whose cars scratch the minimum weight will think twice about baking a new chassis at all. Two or three kilos can also be filed off in other ways. The temptation is greatest for those who are already underneath and working with ballast. Alfa-Sauber is one of them. Here you are faced with the question of whether it would not be better to completely avoid the construction of a new chassis. And the money is better invested in other areas of vehicle development.
They might run the same chassis spec as 2022 next year. Maybe that was always the plan with being lightweight from the beginning. Can then spend all of the 2023 development budget on improving car rather than a significant chunk on the chassis.
. I hope it’s a one-off…
