[Other Sport] F1 2023

[Audax]

It might seem early to be getting this thread up and running, but for me the 2023 season starts TODAY - with the end-of-season young drivers test day and 2023 Pirelli tyre test.


2022 Recap

Spoiler: 2022 Recap

Right – the 2022 season is now over. Max Verstappen has won the Drivers title, Red Bull have won the Constructors title. Ferrari looked strong early on, but fell away spectacularly with a series of reliability issues, team strategy errors, and Leclerc driving errors that left Verstappen unchallenged. Mercedes started the season massively off the pace, but recovered to win a race (Russell’s first) on merit at Brazil.

The 2022 season generated plenty of its own controversy to follow on from 2021’s farcical final race. But this time, at least, most of the off-track fun and games were of the teams’ and drivers’ own making rather than the FIA.

Vettel kick started it all by announcing his retirement, opening a seat at Aston Martin. Alonso then stunned all in F1 by seizing that seat, leaving the Alpine team wrong-footed by the speed at which Alonso did the deal. Alpine then tried to announce Piastri, only to be immediately and very publicly turned down by their star reserve driver. After much bluster from Alpine and silence from Piastri and McLaren, the Contract Recognitions Board rules in favour of Piastri going to McLaren – and in their ruling made it abundantly clear exactly how big an embarrassment Alpine had put itself into. And during all of this, McLaren moved to cut short Ricciardo’s contract and left one of F1’s formerly must-have drivers without a 2023 seat. Alpine moved to poach Gasly from AlphaTauri, who in turn took De Vries away from an expected Williams seat.

And then as the season moved towards its final few races, rumours swirled that Red Bull had breached the cost cap regulations. Red Bull denied it, but after discussions with the FIA accepted their position and entered into an agreement that will see them docked aero testing time for 12 months.

And so, on to the off-season and 2023…


Off Season 2022/23

Young Drivers Test 2022 – Abu Dhabi – 22 Nov 2022 [Completed]

Spoiler: YDT summary

A full day’s test with 2 distinct programs. Each team should bring 2 cars in 2022 spec. For each team, 1 car will be driven by a young driver who must not have any significant Formula 1 experience previously. The second car for each team will be driven by a current driver, but they must use the 2023 Pirelli tyres.

Alpine's legal team have been busy (despite needing to hire new lawyers after apparently sacking those responsible for the "Piasco"): They've agreed deals to release Alonso and Piastri early, so that both can test with their 2023 teams from today. Indeed, Piastri completed an older-car test run with McLaren last week to help familiarise with the team.

The line up is expected to be:

Red Bull – Liam Lawson (RB junior and P3 in F2 2022) and Perez/Verstappen

Ferrari – Robert Shwartzman (Ferrari junior) and Leclerc/Sainz

Mercedes – Frederik Vesti (Mercedes junior, P9 in F2 2022) and Hamilton/Russell

Alpine – Jack Doohan (Alpine junior, P6 in F2 2022) and Gasly

McLaren – Oscar Piastri (F2 champion 2021) and Norris

Alfa Romeo – Theo Pourchaire (Sauber junior, P2 in F2 2022) and Bottas

Aston Martin – Felipe Drugovich (F2 champion 2022) and Alonso/Stroll

AlphaTauri – Nyck de Vries (former Formula E and F2 champion) and Tsunoda

Haas – Pietro Fittipaldi (long standing Haas reserve) and Hulkenberg

Williams – Logan Sargeant (P4 in F2 2022, Williams 2023 driver) and Albon

2023 Car launches

Haas launched earliest on January 31st, with a new livery reveal. Alfa Romeo were the first to actually show a 2023 car, on February 7th.

Spoiler: Links to posts in this thread with car launch tweets

While there won't be any big changes to the cars like that between 2021 and 2022, there are some things to watch out for as the 2023 cars get revealed. Rules changes mean that the floor edge must be 15mm higher than this season. This rule change is aimed at attempting to minimise or eliminate the “porpoising” issue that plagued teams early in 2022. Pirelli will bring new tyres, supposedly addressing a grip balance issue from 2022 that mean drivers will have less under steer from the front tyres and be able to push through the corners a bit more (hopefully this reduces the tendency for the cars to look slow and clumsy at tracks like the Hungaroring).

All eyes will be on the Mercedes launch when it happens. Will they continue with the tiny sidepods, or will we see them revert to a Red Bull style design?

Launch dates will be added below as they get announced:

Haas: January 31st [Livery only]
Red Bull: February 3rd [New York] (Ford announced as engine partner for 2026 and beyond)
Williams: February 6th [Livery only, car at Bahrain test]
Alfa Romeo: February 7th [Zurich]
AlphaTauri: February 11th [Livery, New York + 2023 car images online]
Aston Martin: February 13th [Silverstone]
McLaren: February 13th [details TBC]
Ferrari: February 14th [details TBC]
Mercedes: February 15th [Silverstone]
Alpine: February 16th [London]

Pre-Season Test 2023 – Bahrain – 23-25 February 2023

3 days of testing, each day consisting of 8 hours split into 4 hour morning and afternoon sessions. This will be the first time the 2023 cars are run in anger, and will be the only test - so a lot hinges on getting the cars there ready to run and not (I'm looking at you, McLaren!) encountering terminal issues.

Spoiler: Testing driver schedule and times

Schedule of driving duties for the 3 day test:

TEAM	DAY 1	DAY 2	DAY 3
Red Bull	Verstappen	Perez (am) / Verstappen (pm)	Perez
Ferrari	Sainz (am) / Leclerc (pm)	Sainz (am) / Leclerc (pm)	Leclerc (am) / Sainz (pm)
Mercedes	Russell (am) / Hamilton (pm)	Hamilton (am) / Russell (pm)	Russell (am) / Hamilton (pm)
Alpine	Gasly (am) / Ocon (pm)	Ocon (am) / Gasly (pm)	Gasly (am) / Ocon (pm)
McLaren	Piastri (am) / Norris (pm)	Norris (am) / Piastri (pm)	Piastri (am) / Norris (pm)
Alfa Romeo	Zhou (am) / Bottas (pm)	Zhou	Bottas
Aston Martin	Drugovich (am) / Alonso (pm)	Alonso	Drugovich (am) / Alonso (pm)
Haas	Hulkenberg (am) / Magnussen (pm)	Magnussen (am) / Hulkenberg (pm)	Hulkenberg (am) / Magnussen (pm)
AlphaTauri	Tsunoda (am) / De Vries (pm)	Tsunoda (am) / De Vries (pm)	De Vries (am) / Tsunoda (pm)
Williams	Albon (am) / Sargeant (pm)	Sargeant	Albon

Testing Times after each day:

DAY 1	DAY 2	DAY 3
1. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m32.837s, C3, 157 laps 2. Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m32.866s, C3, 60 laps 3. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m33.253s, C3, 72 laps 4. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m33.267s, C3, 64 laps 5. Norris (McLaren) 1m33.462s, C3, 40 laps 6. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m33.508s, C3, 83 laps 7. Albon (Williams) 1m33.671s, C5, 74 laps 8. Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1m33.723s, C3, 67 laps 9. Russell (Mercedes) 1m34.174s, C3, 69 laps 10. Sargeant (Williams) 1m34.324s, C3, 75 laps 11. Hulkenberg (Haas) 1m34.424s, C3, 51 laps 12. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m34.558s, C3, 71 laps 13. De Vries (AlphaTauri) 1m34.559s, C3, 85 laps 14. Drugovich (Aston Martin) 1m34.564s, C3, 40 laps 15. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m34.671s, 46 laps 16. Gasly (Alpine) 1m34.822s, C3, 60 laps 17. Ocon (Alpine) 1m34.871s, C3, 53 laps 18. Piastri (McLaren) 1m34.888s, C3, 52 laps 19. Magnussen (Haas) 1m35.087s, C3, 57 laps	1. Zhou (Alfa Romeo) 1m31.610s, C5, 133 laps 2. Verstappen (Red Bull) 1m31.650s, C3, 47 laps 3. Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m32.205, C3, 130 laps 4. De Vries (AlphaTauri) 1m32.222s, C4, 74 laps 5. Hulkenberg (Haas) 1m32.466s, C4, 68 laps 6. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m32.486, C3, 70 laps 7. Sargeant (Williams) 1m32.549s, C5, 154 laps 8. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m32.725s, C3, 68 laps 9. Piastri (McLaren) 1m33.175s, C3, 74 laps 10. Gasly (Alpine) 1m33.436s, C3, 59 laps 11. Magnussen (Haas) 1m33.442s, C2, 67 laps 12. Ocon (Alpine) 1m33.490s, C3, 49 laps 13. Russell (Mercedes) 1m33.738s, C3, 26 laps 14. Perez (Red Bull) 1m33.751s, test, 76 laps 15. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m33.954s, C3, 72 laps 16. Norris (McLaren) 1m35.522s, C2, 65 laps 17. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m37.687s, C2, 85 laps	1. Perez (Red Bull) 1m30.305s, C4, 133 laps 2. Hamilton (Mercedes) 1m30.664s, C5, 65 laps 3. Bottas (Alfa Romeo) 1m30.827s, C5, 131 laps 4. Leclerc (Ferrari) 1m31.024s, C4, 67 laps 5. Sainz (Ferrari) 1m31.036s, C4, 76 laps 6. Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) 1m31.261s, C4, 79 laps 7. Magnussen (Haas) 1m31.381s, C4, 95 laps 8. Russell (Mercedes) 1m31.442s, C5, 83 laps 9. Alonso (Aston Martin) 1m31.450s, C4, 80 laps 10. Drugovich (Aston Martin) 1m32.075s, C5, 77 laps 11. Norris (McLaren) 1m32.160s, C3, 37 laps 12. Gasly (Alpine) 1m32.762s, C3, 56 laps 13. Albon (Williams) 1m32.793s, C5, 136 laps 14. Ocon (Alpine) 1m33.357s, C3, 76 laps 15. Hulkenberg (Haas) 1m33.329s, C3, 77 laps 16. Piastri (McLaren) 1m33.655s, C3, 44 laps 17. De Vries (AlphaTauri) 1m38.244s, C3, 87 laps

Season 2023

Finally, Ferrari have admitted that their title challenge failure and lack of pace through the second half of the season was a result of turning down performance from their engine in order to get some better reliability after their string of failures in the first half of the season. Can they get on top of those issues in the off season and head into 2023 ready to challenge through the entire season? And what of Mercedes - can they put themselves properly back in contention and give Hamilton a chance to win that record-breaking 8th WDC? Or will Russell in his second year at the team hasten a Hamilton retirement decision by once again outscoring him?

As alluded to in the intro for this post, there’s plenty of driver changes for 2023. Here’s the line-up (* = rookie):

TEAM	DRIVER 1	DRIVER 2	RESERVE(S)
Red Bull	Max Verstappen	Sergio Perez	Lawson / Ricciardo
Ferrari	Charles Leclerc	Carlos Sainz	Schwartzman / Giovinazzi
Mercedes	Lewis Hamilton	George Russell	Schumacher
Alpine	Esteban Ocon	Pierre Gasly	Doohan
McLaren	Lando Norris	Oscar Piastri *	Palou / (borrow from Aston)
Alfa Romeo	Valtteri Bottas	Zhou Guanyu	Pourchaire
Aston Martin	Lance Stroll	Fernando Alonso	Drugovich / Vandoorne
Haas	Kevin Magnussen	Nico Hulkenberg	Fittipaldi
AlphaTauri	Yuki Tsunoda	Nyck de Vries * Daniel Ricciardo	Lawson
Williams	Alex Albon	Logan Sargeant *	(borrow from Mercedes)

The FIA announced a 24-race calendar, however the Chinese GP was cancelled due to Covid policies in the country and won’t be replaced, leaving a 23 race calendar. There will also be 6 sprint races, up from the 3 of this year. The finalised calendar is as follows ({S} = Sprint):

March 5 - Bahrain 1. Verstappen 2. Perez 3. Alonso	March 19 - Saudi Arabia 1. Perez 2. Verstappen (+FL) 3. Alonso	April 2 - Australia 1. Verstappen 2. Hamilton 3. Alonso
April 16 - China (cancelled - covid)	April 30 - Azerbaijan {S} Race: 1. Perez 2. Verstappen 3. Leclerc Sprint: 1. Perez 2. Leclerc 3. Verstappen	May 7 - Miami 1. Verstappen 2. Perez 3. Alonso
May 21 - Imola (cancelled - floods)	May 28 - Monaco 1. Verstappen 2. Alonso 3. Ocon	June 4 - Spain 1. Verstappen (+FL) 2. Hamilton 3. Russell
June 18 - Canada 1. Verstappen 2. Alonso 3. Hamilton	July 2 - Austria {S} Race: 1. Verstappen 2. Leclerc 3. Perez Sprint: 1. Verstappen 2. Perez 3. Sainz	July 9 - British 1. Verstappen 2. Norris 3. Hamilton
July 23 - Hungary 1. Verstappen 2. Norris 3. Perez	July 30 - Belgium {S} Race: 1. Verstappen 2. Perez 3. Leclerc Sprint: 1. Verstappen 2. Piastri 3. Gasly	August 27 - Netherlands 1. Verstappen 2. Alonso 3. Gasly
September 3 - Italy 1. Verstappen 2. Perez 3. Sainz	September 17 - Singapore 1. Sainz 2. Norris 3. Hamilton	September 24 - Japan 1. Verstappen 2. Norris 3. Piastri
October 8 - Qatar {S} Race: 1. Verstappen 2. Piastri 3. Norris Sprint: 1. Piastri 2. Verstappen 3. Norris	October 22 - Texas (COTA) {S} Race: 1. Verstappen 2. Hamilton 3. Norris Sprint: 1. Verstappen 2. Hamilton 3. Leclerc	October 29 - Mexico 1. Verstappen 2. Hamilton 3. Leclerc
November 5 - Brazil {S} Race: 1. Verstappen 2. Norris 3. Alonso Sprint: 1. Verstappen 2. Norris 3. Perez	November 18 - Las Vegas 1. Verstappen 2. Leclerc 3. Perez	November 26 - Abu Dhabi 1. Verstappen 2. Leclerc 3. Russell

My Pre-Season Predictions

Link here: https://nortr3nixy.nimpr.uk/threads/f1-2023.397910/post-10563996

 

[Bold Seagull]

Great update as always @Audax.

14 races up to the summer break. Incredible. That's the same number of races as the entire 1980 championship. Next season has the same number of races as 3 of Fangio's titles in 1952, 1953 and 1954.

 

[Audax]

As expected - BBC have reported this morning (via 'sources') that the Chinese GP for 2023 will be cancelled and not replaced. The reason is China's ongoing strict rules for Covid isolation, which includes detention in a quarantine centre. F1 feels they cannot ask F1 teams to expose themselves to potentially being detained.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

23 races, a four week gap in April, 4 races in the F1 heartland of the middle East and three in the States.

It's fair to say I'm not a fan of the schedule.

 

[A1X]

I'm a little surprised there's no Sprint at Silverstone, you'd have thought they'd be desperate to coin in the money at the tracks with the biggest weekend attendance (like COTA, Brazil and Spa). Not sure what benefit there is to them doing one in Azerbaijan as it's neither a high attendance nor a big "corporate" event I would have thought, but there you go.

Just want it to be more competitive. 2022 was back to the bad old days of someone running away with it.

 

[Audax]

I'm a little surprised there's no Sprint at Silverstone, you'd have thought they'd be desperate to coin in the money at the tracks with the biggest weekend attendance (like COTA, Brazil and Spa). Not sure what benefit there is to them doing one in Azerbaijan as it's neither a high attendance nor a big "corporate" event I would have thought, but there you go.

Just want it to be more competitive. 2022 was back to the bad old days of someone running away with it.

It's all about how much the circuit promoter is willing to pay. Was reading this morning that the Qatar sprint race was originally intended for Saudi Arabia (really? on that circuit?!), but the Saudi's baulked at the cost. Silverstone not having a sprint race will be similar: they simply don't have the money to put into having a sprint on the agenda in addition to the standard race.

Azerbaijan, on the other hand, pay big to host F1. Next year is the last of their current contract, and it was expected they would then drop off the calendar so F1 can add a new track elsewhere (the mooted South African round at Kyalami was mentioned). However, it's now expected that due to how much they're willing to pay to keep F1 Azerbaijan will get a new 10 year contract.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

I’m calling it now. Las Vegas GP will be a disaster off the track.

 

[Audax]

I’m calling it now. Las Vegas GP will be a disaster off the track.

It looks ... terrible as a circuit as well. Drivers are going to get bored on the straights. Simulator lap below:

 

[A1X]

It looks ... terrible as a circuit as well. Drivers are going to get bored on the straights. Simulator lap below:

I count 5 corners where they have to brake on the whole lap. By comparison, that many takes you onto the old pit straight at Silverstone, so not even half the lap.

 

[Guinness Boy]

It looks ... terrible as a circuit as well. Drivers are going to get bored on the straights. Simulator lap below:

I was in Vegas for the first time in September and one of our cab drivers described where the circuit was going to be. I just sort of nodded and ummed politely to him but in my head I was thinking "how on EARTH are you going to make an interesting circuit out of that?".

On the plus I'll be able to nail it on the F1 game first time without stacking it.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

It looks ... terrible as a circuit as well. Drivers are going to get bored on the straights. Simulator lap below:

Just out of interest I priced up Luxor an off course hotel and flights for 7 days wed - Wed and it was around £1800pp based on 2 sharing.

That to me suggests that anything inside the closed area will be off limits unless you have a ticket for the whole weekend and potentially the days before and after.

Also would say it looks like normal folk will struggle to get a ticket.

In addition to that, the fountains look like they will be blocked off for weeks.

 

[dolphins]

Looks truly bad. Makes Caesar's car park seem a sensible place after all!

 

[Audax]

Just hoping this isn't "one race too many" for the US. There's signs that F1 has finally cracked that market, with year-on-year growth in US viewing figures. They've got a US driver to follow next year as well (Logan Sargeant), which should help further, but if Vegas turns out to be a right dud of a race that could set all that progress back.

 

[Dr Q]

Vegas looks awful. Then again most Yanks view motorsport circuits as having two straights connected by two long corners.

 

[Audax]

(Cross-posting from the 2022 thread where I replied to another post with the below):

Thanks for your insightful F1 posts this year Audax.

Glad the season is over - let's hope that, come Bahrain in March, the Red Bull dominance is over.

I'll keep an eye out for anything noteworthy over the off season and put it in the 2023 thread - but I'm expecting the aero testing restrictions will peg Red Bull back. There's a few options for generating a far more competitive (for WDC / WCC) season in 2023:

1. Red Bull aero testing restrictions limit their in-season development. RB have been the masters of this for years (even when they were relatively struggling), but they'll be short on wind tunnel runs and CFD for next season. I'm expecting their car to be very strong for race 1, but then not develop as strongly through the season and get pegged back the longer the season goes.

2. Ferrari are able to sort out their power unit reliability. Their performance drop off this season was at least partly the result of turning down the power output on their ICE as well as being more affected by high altitude with their smaller turbo (fun fact: smaller turbo = better acceleration, but the turbo has to work harder - and that working harder gets worse at high altitude tracks such as Mexico) and thus having to turn down the turbo for some races as well. If they sort the reliability, expect them to be stronger.

3. Mercedes have actually figured out what went wrong with the 2022 car and are able to fix it for 2023. They (eventually) got the 2022 car working, more or less, but the final 2-3 tenths they needed to challenge RB regularly remained locked up by the car faults. If they've genuinely identified the source of the problem and remove it for the next car, they could come out from race 1 on the pace.

4. A surprise from midfield.

a. Alpine have made small steps forward this season - can they translate that into a leap into the "tier 1" pack for 2023? (I doubt it)​

b. McLaren return to form? (Suspect the best they'll be able to manage is to put themselves back ahead of Alpine in no-man's land between 3rd and 5th)​

c. Aston Martin - this for me is the potential dark horse. Their 2023 car will be the first that benefits from the input of Dan Fallows (poached from RB) and other significant staffing investment since Stroll took over.​

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

Just hoping this isn't "one race too many" for the US. There's signs that F1 has finally cracked that market, with year-on-year growth in US viewing figures. They've got a US driver to follow next year as well (Logan Sargeant), which should help further, but if Vegas turns out to be a right dud of a race that could set all that progress back.

Why the worry whether F1 cracks the states?

I'm more concerned about the proliferation of dull tracks.

 

[A1X]

Just hoping this isn't "one race too many" for the US. There's signs that F1 has finally cracked that market, with year-on-year growth in US viewing figures. They've got a US driver to follow next year as well (Logan Sargeant), which should help further, but if Vegas turns out to be a right dud of a race that could set all that progress back.

Further to this, my concern then would be that the easiest one for them to get rid of becomes the one at COTA, which is the only actual decent track of the three. But I'd also imagine the least financially valuable (relatively).

 

[zefarelly]

23 races, a four week gap in April, 4 races in the F1 heartland of the middle East and three in the States.

It's fair to say I'm not a fan of the schedule.

Half of those circuits are less inspiring than a lap of the m25 on a Friday afternoon

Talk about spreading it thin

I cant recall a time I watched or cared less. AbOut F1

 

[Swansman]

I've only watched two races ever (a replay of the chaotic one in San Marino or Monza or wherever it was 1994 and one last year where everyone was riding nicely behind that safety car thingie for like half the race).

However, I've recently played a bunch of Motorsport Manager... and now feel I understand it all a bit better. Might look at some more races next season.

 

[Kinky Gerbil]

Further to this, my concern then would be that the easiest one for them to get rid of becomes the one at COTA, which is the only actual decent track of the three. But I'd also imagine the least financially valuable (relatively).

Vegas is only a year contract I believe.

I also believe it’s the two main casinos groups - MGM and Caesars that are fronting up a lot of the cash, so if it fails they won’t renew