The Alfa Romeo C43 became the first genuine 2023 Formula 1 car to hit the track on Friday, revealing key details that were hidden when the car was launched earlier this week.
Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu drove the car during the 100km of running permitted on the filming day at Barcelona, which was described by the team as “successful”.
The big change was to the floor. The show car used for the launch featured a basic floor, while the renders issued featured an overly-elaborate toothed design that would not be legal.
The real car features a floor-edge treatment similar to that of the Red Bull RB18. It also features a slot in front of the rear wheel echoing that introduced by Ferrari and also used by Aston Martin and, for a period, Red Bull last year.
Your first look at #F1 2023 on track. ♥️ #GetCloser pic.twitter.com/P3oMh0xtqk
— Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake (@alfaromeof1) February 10, 2023
The launch show car and renders also had different rear suspension configurations, but the car that ran at Barcelona continues to have pushrod rear suspension. This is possible because while Alfa Romeo uses Ferrari gearbox internals, it makes its own casing both for cost-cap efficiency reasons and to have greater freedom in suspension geometry.
As the team promised, the front end of the car has not changed significantly.
The front wing is a similar shape to last year, with the slightly wavy mainplane design continuing to be used and offering relatively consistent load across the span of the wing. The front wing endplate has a similar edge to the one introduced by Haas last year.
The nosecone also does not exhibit any significant changes.
The first major change to the front area is to the upper wishbone arms in the front suspension, which now attach right in line with the top edge of the chassis. This is similar to the Red Bull RB18.
GARY ANDERSON’S SUSPENSION ANALYSIS
Finally we have a real world, on-track version of the Alfa Romeo. It’s still very difficult to see the detail, but I have added some coloured lines to define some of the components.
Magenta is the letterbox-style radiator inlet, while red is the fairly benign trailing edge of the front flap of the front wing. Alfa is not doing too much in the area of the front tyre.
Blue is the pushrod and green is the front leg of the top wishbone.
Orange is the rear leg of the front wishbone. Being dropped lower where it joins the chassis is similar to Alfa’s design last year – this is not as pronounced as Red Bull’s, but it will reduce the front ride height change with varying steering forces under braking and acceleration.
Yellow is the front trackrod.
Now, let’s take a look at the rear suspension.
In this image the red line is the driveshaft, while the green line shows the lower wishbone forward leg and the yellow one the upper wishbone forward leg.
Blue marks the pushrod suspension. ‘Ah, pushrod, you say?’ because Alfa Romeo fooled us at the launch.
The magenta line again marks the radiator inlet and the light-blue arrows illustrate how the excess radiator spillage flow will be managed and pulled into the coke bottle area.
It’s difficult to see much of the floor-edge detail, but you could say the sidepods are definitely what you would get if you crossed last year’s Ferrari radiator inlet with the Red Bull sidepod profile.
The car features a double t-tray that was not evident on the renders of the car and also features shorter outer floor fences that are similar to last year’s.
The inlet sidepods echo the Ferrari philosophy, as revealed at the launch, but with a large lower section to facilitate the passage of airflow between the upper edge of the floor and the sidepods.
Oh, how we’ve missed that sound. 🎶 #GetCloser #F1 pic.twitter.com/FwrjsnKu0i
— Alfa Romeo F1 Team Stake (@alfaromeof1) February 10, 2023
The single-spike rollhoop seen at the launch is also apparent, along with the sidepods and engine cover that blend the concepts used by Alpine and Red Bull last year.
“The debut of our C43 is a pivotal moment in our season: it marks the start of our on-track campaign and really drives home how close the season is,” said technical director Jan Monchaux.
“Today was important to ensure everything is in place, not just with the car but also with the wider team, ahead of what is going to be a crucial start of the championship.
“We have to thank everyone who worked on the car, and of course also our partners Ferrari, for getting us here. We are ready for testing and we can’t wait to get to work in Bahrain.”
The car will also run on Saturday, with Alfa Romeo using the second of its two permitted promotional days.
Reserve driver Theo Pourchaire will share the driving with Bottas and Zhou.
Keyword: What Alfa’s track running has revealed about its 2023 design