Alpine were the last team to unveil their 2023 F1 car – the A523 – and it marks a huge change in philosophy over last year's machine. Mark Hughes unpacks the changes to the midfield team's new car as they aim to break into the top three.
Alpine’s A523 represents a very
significant evolution to last year’s car, totally rebodied and different from its new front wing and wider nose to its new push rod rear suspension.
READ MORE: Alpine team boss Szafnauer sets clear target for 2023 and shares update on their ‘100-race plan’
Aggressive aerodynamic and weight targets have been met and the car is actually under the weight limit, allowing it to place ballast to suit the demands of individual circuits.
A new front wing hangs from a new wider, flatter nose. The bottom flap of the wing is now attached to the nose rather than hanging from it. Technical Director Matt Harman says the new nose structure gives more freedom to make changes to the front wing elements, again giving more set-up adjustability.
The front suspension retains the previous pushrod layout but the geometry has been changed to incorporate greater resistance to dive under braking. This is for the sake of the aero platform which is more important than ever with this generation of ground effect car because the car’s attitude can determine which proportion of the incoming air goes over the body and under the floor. If this proportion changes too much during braking and into the corner, the powerful underfloor means that if it is suddenly starved, the rear can be unstable, only to return to a less responsive, benign balance mid-corner when the car has levelled out. This is the opposite of what’s desired, which is a stable rear on turn-in but good responsive rotation through the corner. This is a big focus of effort for all teams under this regulation set.
The front suspension geometry change is actually a good clue for how the team have set about making those aero gains. Although last year’s car proved generally well-balanced and more consistent than their midfield rivals, they couldn’t combine this with the sort of downforce levels achieved by the top teams. We can see on the A523 that there is a totally different arrangement of inlets to the floor tunnels, inferring a redesign of the whole underfloor area and how it is working that vital part of the airflow.
The underfloor is the dominant part of this generation of car’s performance.
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