Alpine reveals the A523

The final 2023 Formula 1 car launch is Alpine and the French team unveiled its A523 at an event in London.

Alpine will continue racing as a national French racing blue and BWT pink livery on the A523, although it too follows the recent trend of leaving parts of its car in unpainted carbon fibre to save weight.

Drivers Esteban Ocon and newcomer Pierre Gasly, who joins from AlphaTauri, presented a car which appears to build on the strengths of its predecessor, the A522.

As in 2022, the team also presented a second, predominantly pink livery which will be used in the opening three races in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia.

Last year Ocon and Fernando Alonso enjoyed a solid year for the French manufacturer as it leapfrogged McLaren to claim fourth position in the constructors’ championship, behind top three teams Red Bull, Ferrari and Mercedes.

At first glance the A523 therefore seems to be an evolution rather than a revolution, building on the strong foundations laid last season as the Enstone team aims to continue reducing the gap to the frontrunners in 2023.

Along with a bulkier lateral part of the engine cover, which was also seen on the Mercedes W14, Alpine has replaced its mini shark fin with cooling louvres on the central part of the cover as some of the most eye-catching changes.

Ocon and Gasly will be hoping the A523 proves more reliable than its predecessor, with a spate of retirements preventing the team from scoring even better results in 2022.

Ocon and Alonso retired from seven races last season, with the double world champion suffering the brunt of Alpine’s reliability issues as its Renault power unit.

Alonso has since moved to Aston Martin, with Ocon now forming an all-French partnership with Gasly, who signed a multi-year deal with Alpine last October.

The French duo got a first taste of the A523 at a Silverstone shakedown on Monday, with Ocon completing nine laps before Gasly took over and ran a further eight laps until the team reached its 100km allowance for filming days.

Alpine’s 2023 ambition is to continue on its 100-race plan to win a world championship, a roadmap which it embarked on last year.

According to team boss Otmar Szafnauer that means that the team has to continue showing progress and be “closer to third than to fifth”.

“We have to take a step closer to being able to win a championship, which is what we wanted to do in 100 races,” he said.

“That 100 started at the beginning of [2022], so it’s less than 80 from now on.

“We need to do the same, but we need to be closer to third than we are to fifth. So even if we stay fourth, we’ve got to make progress.”