This is the new look from Alfa Romeo with the C43, featuring an eye-catching red and carbon black livery and some interesting aerodynamic tweaks as part of 2023 rules.
The C43’s livery has been designed by Alfa Romeo’s main road car styling department, without the white that has been part of the established look since the company first joined forces with Sauber as a sponsor in 2018.
Alfa Romeo’s deal with the Swiss organisation ends this year prior to two transition seasons with Ferrari power before the team becomes the works Audi outfit in 2026.
The new livery marks both Alfa’s final fling in Formula 1 and the switch of title sponsor from Orlen to Stake.
The team unveiled a show car at a launch event in Switzerland, as well as issuing CGI images. The real C43 will be seen for the first time when it undertakes a filming day in Barcelona later this week.
New Sauber CEO Andreas Seidl has opted to keep a low profile for the time being as he begins his main task of building up the organisation ahead of Audi’s arrival.
Alfa Romeo will thus be overseen on race weekends by managing director Alessandro Alunni Bravi, who has been nominated as team representative.
“Bringing a car to life is a long process which touches every department of a racing team, therefore it’s a moment of great pride to see it unveiled today,” said the Italian.
“We chose to do it in front of our fans, close to our home, because the launch of a new car is not only a moment to state your objectives for the season ahead – it’s also a time to give back to the people who have supported you, be it in the grandstands, in front of the TV or back at the factory, and express our gratitude for their passion and their belief in our project.
“Our new car is the results of months of work, but today is just the beginning of a journey. We need to keep working hard, with humility and dedication, to bring performance to the track.
“Everyone in the team is committed to this target and I am confident we will reap the rewards of our work.”
The team describes the C43 as an evolution of its predecessor. However, it features substantial changes at the rear, with a new gearbox, rear suspension and cooling layout, with all the changes designed to address weaknesses that were apparent last year.
The other key focus was reliability after the team suffered a series of problems in 2022.
“I am very proud of what we have achieved over these last months, because creating a new car is always a massive effort from the team,” said technical director Jan Monchaux.
“This car is an evolution of last year, reflecting the new regulations and introducing major changes in the areas where we found improvements to be needed.
“I hope it’s going to be quicker than the successful car we had last year, that’s what matters most, and more reliable as well – we have put a lot of effort in this direction.
“Now, it’s time to get to the track and see how this car performs. I’m happy to get back to racing and I’m confident there will be much more to come from us soon.”
Official Alfa Romeo site and social media:
https://www.sauber-group.com/motorsport/f1-news/alfa-romeo-f1-team-stake-unveils-the-c43-aggressive-on-and-below-the-skin/
https://twitter.com/ZhouGuanyu24/status/1622906064277585920?cxt=HHwWgIC-kfGd3IUtAAAA
https://twitter.com/ValtteriBottas/status/1622905318853251077?cxt=HHwWisC4pb_y24UtAAAA
https://twitter.com/alfaromeof1/status/1622886970937552903?cxt=HHwWjsC91cDG04UtAAAA
https://twitter.com/alfaromeof1/status/1622885376871534592?cxt=HHwWgMDU-dvp0oUtAAAA
News stories:
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.gallery-take-a-closer-look-at-alfa-romeos-new-car-and-new-livery-for-the.1tmnneZ0GZkhggtr7XZshG.html
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article.first-look-alfa-romeo-show-off-2023-c43-f1-car-with-striking-new-livery.3eyobBgMrif9zCCJat7zTK.html
https://www.skysports.com/f1/news/12478/12805091/alfa-romeo-launch-mean-new-2023-formula-1-car-as-valtteri-bottas-led-team-look-to-stick-in-midfield-battle
https://www.racefans.net/2023/02/07/alfa-romeo-irritated-by-very-late-rule-change-which-added-half-a-second-to-lap-times/
https://www.racefans.net/2023/02/07/first-pictures-alfa-romeo-reveals-its-new-f1-car-for-2023/
https://the-race.com/formula-1/alfa-romeo-2023-f1-car-launch-red-bull-inspired-sidepods/
The Alfa Romeo Formula 1 team has retained its unique blade roll hoop for the C43 but designed it to withstand load tests that the FIA will introduce in 2024.
Roll hoops came under the spotlight after Alfa driver Zhou Guanyu’s huge accident at the start of last year’s British GP.
Alfa was the only team using the blade design permitted by the FIA, and in an unprecedented occurrence, its pointed top dug into the track and was eventually snapped off.
The incident prompted an investigation by the FIA, which included three meetings of the Technical Advisory Committee in which all teams play a role.
One of the conclusions reported by the FIA was that “the wording, as currently in the regulations, allows teams to homologate their roll hoops with forces acting through a lower point than intended. This can lead to the roll hoop resisting forces that are lower than originally intended by the regulations”.
For 2023 the FIA duly mandated “a change to require a rounded top of the roll hoop, which will reduce the chance of it digging into the ground during an accident,” plus “a change to ensure a minimum height for the point of application of the homologation test” and “the creation of a new physical homologation test where the load pushes the roll hoop in the forward direction.”
In addition, the FIA confirmed that it will introduce much stricter load tests for 2024, while giving teams enough time to comply with the new requirements.
Alfa had already decided that it was too late to abandon the blade for this season.
However, in addition to complying with the 2023 requirements, including a more curved top, the team has also decided to meet the load tests planned for 2024 as an extra safety measure.
“We will use a completely different roll hoop,” Alfa technical director Jan Monchaux told Motorsport.com.
“It’s still a blade, because when the decision was made to change or tweak the rules, it was at a point where we had already made some strategical decisions on what is carry over and what is not, from which we couldn’t revert, because it was summer.
“And all the other teams were in a similar situation. So we agreed between FIA and the teams to do effectively three steps.
“A first step is in ’23, which is mainly a geometrical constraint to avoid sharp edges that cut and things like this on the top, to make it harder for a roll hoop in such a situation to dig into the track.
“For ’24 there are some additional rules and some new load cases that are more demanding, that everyone will have to pass.
“What we decided to do was to already anticipate our roll hoop shape, investing extra weight, to fit the 2024 rules. Because we were involved in the accident, we didn’t just want to comply with the ’23 demands, we made a further step already, strictly speaking being legal for ’24.”
Monchaux acknowledged that the FIA would have made the stricter tests compulsory for all teams in ’23 had the Zhou incident and subsequent investigation not happened so late in the season.
Source: Motorsport.com