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The new Formula 1 season gets under way in just two months, and despite 2023 not being a year of profound rules upheaval of the scale of last year there are plenty of significant changes.
Whether it’s driver changes, calendar shuffles, rules tweaks or format modifications, here’s our guide to what’s new for F1 2023.
Alonso and Gasly on the move
Fernando Alonso’s shock switch to Aston Martin for 2023 created a cascade effect in F1’s driver market that also led to Pierre Gasly moving to Alpine despite having a year left on his Red Bull/AlphaTauri deal.
Alonso and Gasly have already made their testing debuts for their respective new teams, running during the post-season test in Abu Dhabi.
A trio of rookies
There will be three rookie drivers competing in F1 in 2022, although one of them – new AlphaTauri signing Nyck de Vries – already has one F1 start to his name.
De Vries was recruited to the Red Bull stable as Pierre Gasly’s replacement, following his remarkable ninth place on his debut in the Italian Grand Prix.
Oscar Piastri will make his F1 bow for McLaren with expectations high given his high-profile and controversial departure from Alpine (which the contract recognitions board confirmed had no call on his services in 2023), while there will be an American driver on the grid for the first time since 2015 with Logan Sargeant joining Williams.
Hulkenberg back
Nico Hulkenberg returns to full-time F1 competition for the first time since leaving Renault at the end of 2019, after signing for Haas. He had the opportunity to get a feel for the team by racking up 110 laps in the Abu Dhabi test.
The 35-year-old has kept F1-sharp with five outings as a stand-in for Racing Point/Aston Martin – three in 2020 and two last year – and will be expected to produce regular points-scoring performances for Haas.
Ricciardo and Schumacher on the subs bench
After his struggles with McLaren in 2021-22, Ricciardo has taken up a role as ‘test and third driver’ with Red Bull.
He will attend around a third of the races with the team, although his workload won’t be that of a traditional reserve driver. But it will be the first time he hasn’t had an F1 race seat since the first half of 2011 prior to his F1 debut with HRT.
Mick Schumacher takes up a more conventional reserve role with Mercedes after being dropped by Haas.
Vettel (and Latifi) out of F1
Sebastian Vettel’s F1 retirement means one of the most successful drivers in grand prix history will no longer be on the grid. Given his wider aspirations, it seems unlikely he will put in regular appearances in the F1 paddock this year, and his presence is bound to be sorely missed.
Nicholas Latifi’s less illustrious three-year F1 career also appears to be over after the Canadian was dropped by Williams.
Double the sprints
For the past two years, F1 has run three sprint events. That number doubles to six in 2023, with sprint weekends in Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, the USA (Austin) and Brazil.
After the failure to secure teams’ agreement to do this last year for financial reasons, the cost cap rules have been tweaked to double the allowance per sprint event to $300,000. As part of this change, there’s no longer a separate cost cap allowance in case of damage.
Honda is back
Honda never really left F1, given the Red Bull Powertrains engine that helped Max Verstappen dominate in 2022 is designed, built, developed and maintained by the company. But that pretence of absence has been partially dropped this year with Red Bull and AlphaTauri’s engine now officially named ‘Honda RBPT’ on the entry list.
Honda had already increased its branding during last season, and has registered its interest for the 2026 power unit regulations.
Team principal revolution
Four teams have had a change of team principal over the winter. The highest-profile switch is at Ferrari, with Mattia Binotto’s resignation followed by the appointment of former Alfa Romeo/Sauber chief Frederic Vasseur as team principal and general manager.
Andreas Seidl joins Sauber as group CEO and team principal, with his place at McLaren filled via Andrea Stella’s promotion.
Jost Capito has also left his job as CEO/team principal at Williams, although his successor has yet to be announced.
France and China out…
The French Grand Prix has dropped off the calendar, having been revived at Paul Ricard back in 2018.
China was also scheduled to return, but has been cancelled for the third consecutive season for COVID-19 reasons. F1 is still working on a replacement, with the return of the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve circuit the most likely candidate.
… Las Vegas and Qatar back
The Las Vegas Grand Prix returns to F1 for the first time since 1982 (when it hosted the second of its two races staged under the Caesars Palace Grand Prix name). The new iteration of the event will be held as a Saturday night race starting at 10pm local time.
It will be the first world championship race to be held on a Saturday since the 1985 South African Grand Prix at Kyalami.
Meanwhile, the Lusail circuit-based Qatar is also back as planned, with the venue best known for its long-time presence on the MotoGP calendar now confirmed as Qatar’s long-term home for F1, too.
Rollhoop rules changes
After Zhou Guanyu’s spectacular accident at the start of last year’s British Grand Prix, the technical regulations have been revised to create more robust rollhoops. This is because his single-spike rollhoop failed during the accident.
The rules now require the rollhoops to be designed to a more robust geometry, as well as modifying the load tests so they are applied at a higher point on the primary roll structure.
Floor height rule change
As part of a package of measures to mitigate porpoising and bouncing problems, the height of the floor edges will be raised by 15mm this year. The FIA expects this to cost around half a second per lap, not taking re-optimisation and other gains into account, and that it will reduce the chance of porpoising being triggered.
In order to improve visibility, the rules have also been tweaked to demand larger rearview mirrors.
Previous legal designs outlawed
The FIA always intended to make tweaks to the regulations should designs be produced that, while technically legal, run counter to the intention of the rules to make the cars more raceable. As a result, two designs run in 2022 have been outlawed.
The new rules were conceived effectively to ban endplates, but Aston Martin brilliantly hit upon an interpretation of the bodywork radius regulations to bring them back. This will not be allowed next year.
Mercedes also produced a front-wing endplate design that was more elaborate than the rules intended to allow, which has been banned for 2023.
