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Changes & Shake-Ups – What to Expect Ahead of the New F1 Season

It’s here, you can feel it. The sounds of revving engines, the cry of despair from a failed team strategy, the euphoria of an amazing team performance. The chants from the famous grandstand, the flashes and memories of crashes, the red flags, the black and orange flags, perfect starts, the overtakes, the slipstream, it’s upon us, and all that remains – one which appears like the icing on the cake is the famous cry of David Crofty – “It’s lights out and away we go.”

Nearly three months after the 2022 finale in Abu Dhabi, Formula 1 is back this week with the first race of the 23-calendar-long racing season in Bahrain.

Max Verstappen and Red Bull will be looking to make a strong start on their way to defending the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championships respectively. Ferrari will be looking to replicate last year’s opener where Charles Leclerc bagged the first pole position and race win of the year. Mercedes, on the other hand, will hope they can banish the ghost of the 2022 W13 Silver arrow (the team’s car), one that appears to be lurking despite team principal, Toto Wolff’s early boast of the improvement on the 2023 W14 Silver arrow, labelling it “a Big Statement.”

A delirious atmosphere hovered over every one of the ten teams on the grid in the run-up to the three-day testing in Bahrain.

The three-day testing on the circuit in Bahrain appeared to be a reality check for many teams, who have subsequently begun rescinding their words upon seeing the performance of their team’s car. One standout repeal was the sudden admission of Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff, who, following the completion of the testing in Bahrain, admitted that his team are ‘a bit lost’ as to what’s causing the downforce issues they are experiencing with the new car.

Holding its biggest race calendar ever, Bahrain will host the 23 races scheduled for this season, up from the 22 races held in 2022. The return of F1 is particularly exciting considering the many changes to the sport we’ll be seeing in the coming weeks. For example, after having to call off the Chinese GP due to ongoing COVID-19 restrictions and opting against its replacement, we can rest assured of a return to the roster of the Qatar GP (which was absent last year due to the FIFA World Cup) plus an all-new addition of the Las Vegas GP. 

As well as big seasonal changes, Formula 1 will also experience some technical and regulatory revisions too. Here are the key changes F1 fans need to know ahead of the season-opening race weekend in Bahrain. 

2023 Formula 1 technical changes

Like any F1 season, the FIA are set to introduce new rules or adjust their existing rules, and one major change amongst the many that were made for the 2023 season is the technical change to eradicate the issue of porpoising – one issue that dominated the headlines in the 2022 season.

Porpoising & Roll Hoops:

The FIA 2023 specification of ground-effect floors has been raised by 15mm in an effort to minimize the number of teams running their cars as low as possible, thereby risking safety concerns caused by vertical oscillations. This was originally proposed as a 25mm rise, but pushback from the teams has lessened the overall change in floor edge height. 

Another major technical change of the 2023 F1 season is the roll hoop. Following Zhou Guanyu’s accident at the British Grand Prix in 2022, the FIA decided to revise the regulations of the roll hoop. Roll hoops for the 2023 season have now been revised to improve strength and reduce the possibility of digging the ground in the event of an overturning accident. Also, the FIA’s homologation tests have been changed to incorporate a minimum loading point, along with a horizontal test to ensure the roll hoop does not rip away.

Grid penalties 

After the enormous amount of confusion surrounding back-of-the-grid penalties in F1, the FIA, led by President Mohammed Ben Sulayem, has clarified the rule, to make it less complicated for contestants. For the 2023 season, drivers who receive “more than 15 cumulative grid position penalties, or who have been penalized to start at the back of the grid, will start behind any other classified driver.”

Changes to the mirrors

As F1 looks to improve visibility, changes have been made to the rear-view mirrors. The mandated minimum width of the reflective surface has increased by 50mm from 150mm to 200mm.

Tyres in qualifying

F1 will be experimenting with tyres in qualifying: For two events, all drivers will be required to use just hard tyres in Qualifying 1, medium tyres in Qualifying 2, and softs in Qualifying 3. Pirelli boss Mario Isola believes it’s more sustainable for the tyre manufacturer.

“We got the proposal for next year,” Isola said. “It is my favourite scenario. We are talking about durability. 

“Currently, with the current regulations, you have to be careful with the Soft tyre for qualifying and you can’t use it for the race.”

“If you allocate two sets of Hards for Q1, two sets of Mediums for Q2, and two sets of Softs for Q3, you still have six sets for the race. That’s perfect. We save a lot of tyres with that, without disrupting the F1 show.”

More sprint races

The amount of sprint races for 2023 has doubled. There will be six sprint weekends including Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the USA, and Brazil. 

The cock pits and pit lanes are not without their fair share of changes, either. The 2023 F1 season will feature a number of new and returning names to the grid including Alpha Tauri’s Nyck de Vries, Mclaren’s Oscar Paistri, Williams Logan Sargeant, and the returning Niko Hulkenberg.

Here is a comprehensive list of the 2023 drivers line up:

The 2022 Constructors Champion Red Bull racing maintains its victorious set up from last season, whilst the same can be said for their nearest challengers Mercedes- with Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Ferrari also restored their duo driving team in Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, despite the departure of team Principal Mattia Binotto.

Further down the grid, there are plenty of shake-ups. 

Following the retirement of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel at the end of 2022, British F1 team Aston Martin replaced Vettel with veteran Spanish two-time champion Fernando Alonso, in what was a shock move to many, leaving a gap to fill at Alpine.

Following the contract saga that saw Oscar Piastri and Alpine, Mclaren CEO Zak Brown wooed the Australian prodigy to join the British F1 team as a replacement for ousted veteran countryman Daniel Ricciardo.

French team Alpine opted for Pierre Gasly from Alpha Tauri to replace Fernando Alonso, thereby setting up an all-French connection with Esteban Ocon.

In what was a huge domino effect, Alpha Tauri moved for 2021 Formula E champion and long-time Mercedes reserve Nyck de Vries, to make his full F1 debut in 2023 teaming up with Japanese driver Yuki Tsunoda.

Williams like every other team were not without their fair share of the change, as the team founded by Frank Williams and Patrick Head retained one of its drivers Alex Albon and replaced long-time underperforming driver Nicholas Latifi with American rookie Logan Sargeant.

Haas has replaced German youngster Mick Schumacher with former Renault driver Nico Hulkenberg to slot in alongside Kevin Magnussen.

Alfa Romeo keeps an unchanged line-up for Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu, having been the only team to make a wholesale driver change in 2022.

Championship Prediction and What to Expect

Red Bull Racing had the pace at the end of 2022, though many suggested the limited development time the Austrian team had is bound to cut into its advantage. 

Making our inference from what was witnessed at the three-day pre-season testing in Bahrain, Red Bull racing seem all set to dominate the 2023 F1 season again. The team led by Team Advisor Helmut Marko were able to set one of the fastest times in the test series “-0.943” almost a second faster than last year’s best time set by Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.

Also judging by Aston Martin’s performance at the pre-season testing, spearheaded by 2-time Champion Fernando Alonso, we suspect the British team might emerge as the dark horse of the season. So far, only Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was faster than the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso. 

Here is our list of predictions for the 2023 F1 season:

TeamFLOS Predicted Position
Red Bull RacingMax Verstappen Win +  Constructors Championship 
FerrariOverall 2nd
Mercedes3rd
Aston Martin Racing4th
Alfa Romeo5th
Alpine6th 
McLaren7th
Alpha Tauri8th
Haas Racing9th
Williams10th 

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