Ferrari, Aston Martin and AlphaTauri announce launch date

While teams started their well-earned Christmas holiday, the clock is ticking down until the first race of 2023 F1 season in Bahrain on March 5. This also means that the final push has kicked off that sees teams prepare their new challengers for the sole pre-season testing that will also take place at the Bahrain International Circuit just over a week ahead of the season-opening race.

The start of the 2022 season saw the arrival of brand-new cars that enabled closer wheel-to-wheel racing on the majority of the race-hosting tracks. Among the technical changes were the simplification of the front and rear wing and the introduction of a brand-new floor. Gone was the flat floor which has been replaced with a floor featuring two big channels running from front to rear either side of the central plank.

The upcoming season is set to carry over the frame of the existing rules, but the current cars will go through a few modifications. The floor edges will be raised by 15 millimetres in order to combat propoising, an unwished effect of the ground-effect cars. The minimum weight will also go down from 798kg to 796kg after the minimum weight had posed a huge challenge to master across current season following some alterations to the impact tests.

The 2023 cars are set to be unveiled in mid February. Aston Martin became the first team to announce a date for their car launch. The unveiling of the AMR23 will take place on Monday February 13th with the new car set to be piloted by Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso, who will join the Silverstone-based outfit after two years at the Anglo-French Alpine outfit.

Ferrari became the second team to announce the 2023 Formula 1 car’s launch date. The new car that is currently codenamed Project 675 will be unveiled on February 14.

F1’a most successful team has gone through key changes over the winter with Frederic Vasseur set to take over as team principal following Mattia Binotto’s resignation.

The Maranello-based squad’s statement read: “Ferrari’s 2023 car will be launched on St. Valentine’s Day, making February 14 next year a special day for lovers…of the Scuderia. The new car, which will compete in the 73rd season of the Formula 1 World Championship, will go by project number 675, and its official name will be revealed at a later date.

“For the third sequential year, driving obligations will tumble to the matching of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.”

Formula One’a second Italian outfit AlphaTauri have announced that they will be holding a launch event in New York City to reveal their new livery for the 2023 season. The Faenza-based outfit will showcase their car on February 11 in New York City.

Red Bull’s junior team also confirmed that they new car will be named AT04 and will be piloted by Yuki Tsunoda and Nyck de Vries, who made his F1 debut at the 2022 Italian Grand Prix.