We are just a few days away from the start of the 2023 season, but what has changed from last year?
After one of the biggest overhauls in technical regulations, F1 has ever seen in 2022, a sense of stability should come in this season. In 2022, the main buzzword was porposing and in 2023 the FIA plan to mitigate that, starting with an Aerodynamic Oscillation Metric (AOM) to ensure that teams are not taking liberties with the cars’ aerodynamic set-ups at the expense of safety.
There will also be floor changes to ensure that any wild oscillations are kept firmly in check. The 2023 specification of ground-effect floors will be raised by 15mm to minimize the number of teams running their cars as low as possible and risking safety concerns caused by vertical oscillations.
There will also be more stringent flex tests to ensure that teams are not using elasticity in the floor to run the edges closer to the ground, while the diffuser throat height has been raised to reduce the aero sensitivity under the car.
Each car will also be kitted out with larger mirrors to improve rearward visibility. These will be extended from 150mm x 50mm to 200mm x 60mm.
One of the main points to remember is that the number of grand prix with sprint races is doubled from three to six. These races will take place in Baku (28th -30th April), Red Bull Ring (30th June-2nd July), Spa (28th-30th July), Qatar (6th-8th October), Austin – COTA (20th-22nd October) and Interlagos (3rd-5th November).
Mercedes, RedBull, Ferrari, and Alfa Romeo have kept the same driver lineup for 2023. These are the changes you will see throughout the rest of the field:
- Pierre Gasly joins Esteban Ocon at Alpine
- Oscar Piastri joins Lando Norris at McLaren
- Fernando Alonso joins Lance Stroll at Aston Martin
- Nico Hulkenberg makes a return to a full-time seat at Haas with Kevin Magnussen
- Nyck de Vries joins Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri
- Logan Sargeant joins Alex Albon at Williams
Pirelli will also tweak the Formula 1 tyre system for the 2023 season
A sixth slick tyre compound will be introduced to Formula 1 this season after concerns from Pirelli over the current C1 version.
This means that from the hardest will be the C0 (the C1 tyre in 2022) up to the softest C5. The new C1 compound slots between the C0 and C2, which is unchanged from 2022. From the six compounds three will be chosen for use every race weekend. In the Bahrain Grand Prix, the C1 will be the white-banded hard tyre, C2 will be the yellow-banded medium tyre and C3 will be the red-banded soft tyre.