Alpine: glimpses of sidepods from the fire up | FormulaPassion.it

In 2023 Alpine will have the arduous task of defending the fourth place conquered last season from the assaults of McLaren and Aston Martin, while at the same time trying to close the gap from the top of the class. The A523 will be the last single-seater to be unveiled, due for presentation on 16 February. In the meantime, the team has published a short film on its social channels with the first fire up of the single-seater from which, despite the few images, we have had a clue about the sides of the next car.

From the glimpse offered by the camera, in fact, one can see how the side of the A523 also maintains the shoulder, the external rise that acts as a screen for the car body against external turbulence. Compared to the 2022 single-seater, however, it has been introduced a small invitation in the most advanced part, a dip to encourage flow from the top to the side of the sidepod. This is a solution first introduced in 2022 by Red Bull with the update package for testing in Bahrain and then taken up by Aston Martin with the evolution in Barcelona.

Last season Alpine had started with a configuration of the bellies similar to that of Red Bull and AlphaTauri, with a declining trend of the bodywork to channel the flows adhering to the surfaces in the lower rear area, towards the gearbox and diffuser. Unlike the competition, however, since the very first developments the French team had then taken a different path, raising the outer shoulder more and more to isolate the turbulence coming from the front wheels. However, the small change made to the 2023 single-seater is a simple detail element of a project that will not be fully revealed before two weeks. It should also be remembered that with the ground-effect single-seaters the work is mainly concentrated in the seabed and in the Venturi canals, areas which unfortunately always remain hidden from outside observers.