Predictions for the F1 2023 car launches
Having spent the winter break desperate for any form of F1 news, a lot of time has been consumed thinking about what we could expect to see in the car launches. Here are my final 5 predictions.
1 - Mercedes stick with their zero side pod car design
The big question for the Mercedes car launch on 15th February is, will they stick with their zero side pod idea? Last season we saw the downfall of Mercedes and, quite shockingly, the loss of Lewis Hamilton’s season win streak. We all remember Toto Wolff’s “everyone has a target on their back” comment at the end of Drive to Survive and Mercedes seemed confident going in to the new season with their radical design. In fact, in the wind tunnel, the car looked like the dominant Mercedes we are all used to seeing. However, on the track, this didn’t translate. It has been claimed that Lewis spent a lot of the year running experimental software to try and improve their car and by the end of the season, we did see the results of this with George Russell getting his first win in Brazil. However, at the end of 2022, they were still off the pace of Red Bull and Ferrari and will they be able to make any drastic improvements over the winter break to match their competitors on speed? Now they’ve started going down the zero side pod route, is it worth sticking with it? Or should they cut their losses now and follow the trend to avoid any more embarrassment? Personally, I think they will stick with it. Having that glimmer of hope in the wind tunnel, there is proof that their idea can work and I don’t think Toto and the team will want to admit they were wrong.
2 - Alpine embrace their French driver line up
One of the things I am most looking forward to watching in 2023 is the season unfold at Alpine. The driver pairing of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon is set to be a strained one as it has been widely reported that these two do not like each other. We’ve all watched Ocon’s previous antics on track with his team mates (and that was when he was meant to like the fellow driver) so it’s looking like we will be in for some fireworks. The car launch is the first time we are going to see the two drivers together at Alpine since it was announced Pierre would be joining the team and it would be the perfect opportunity to show the fans that these two are now “friends”. As both driver’s share the same nationality and Alpine themselves are French, this would be the perfect theme to show unity throughout the team going into the 2023 season.
3 - Haas have a complete livery redesign
After the introduction of Money Gram as Haas’ new sponsor, their logo has already been through a change. With Money Gram joining the team, I think they will want to make their mark on the sport and after the previous issues with the teams investors, it might be time for them to make a change. I am hoping, being the only American team on the grid, they might finally decide to embrace this and create a full USA inspired livery. However, I think I might be disappointed in that respect. Either way, I’m expecting a new livery with Money Gram featuring front and centre. As the Money Gram logo is red, could there be a change in livery colour too? We will have to wait and see…
4 - A photoshop fail
With the teams desperate to not give away any of their secrets until the very last minute, there have been times in the past where a team will photoshop images of their car to hide their design (see below). It is hard to blame the teams as they are not going to want to give away their innovative design until the last possible second but if they are going to do it, they might want to brush up on their photoshop skills.
One example of a photoshop error was Haas’ 2021 car launch where they edited in the push rod suspension design (as oppose the the pull rod suspension design you would have expected from Haas as they received parts from Ferrari in the 2021 season). If you look closely at the top suspension you can see it is not actually connected to the car and they have just photoshopped the part in!
5 - Not releasing the final livery
Who remembers the camo livery from Alfa Romeo last season? The aim of that was purely to make it harder for competitors to see and potentially steal their car design (not that many teams would have wanted to steal it… sorry Alfa Romeo). Following on from this, I am expecting at least one team to not reveal their final livery until the first race weekend in Sakhir.