The Bahrain FIA technical update of each of the cars which usually compiles each team’s development changes to the cars since the previous race is this time – because it’s the first race of the season – more of a summary of how each team’s 2023 car differs from its 2022 predecessor.
As such, it’s a useful one-stop summary of what was detailed in the various car launch pieces.
Red Bull
In the evolution of the RB18 to RB19 the sidepod shape is the most obvious visual change.
Red Bull says it was driven by “the opportunity to optimise the cooling from the data garnered in 2022, the layout has changed subtly and the topbody exit duct has changed to reduce consequences downstream on the exit”.
Mercedes
Mercedes details its new-for-Bahrain rear wing, but otherwise talks of the reprofiled nose underside and the very common ’23 change of moving the front track rod down to align with the lower wishbone.
Which has “improved the effectiveness of the lower wishbone to turn (downwash) the flow from the front wing for the benefit of the underfloor.”
It has not detailed its new sidepod geometry or the new internals for the rear suspension (a critical change in eradicating last year’s severe bouncing problem).
Ferrari
The team simply acknowledges that it – like Mercedes – has lowered the track rod, changed the nose shape and modified the sidepod/engine cover geometry.
Alpine
Like Aston Martin, Aston has made among the biggest changes in creating its ’23 car. Front wing, nose, front suspension, front brake ducts, floor, sidepod, engine cover, switch from pull rod to push rod rear suspension, rear brake duct, beam wing ands rear wing are all completely new.
McLaren
The team has provided a very similar changes list to Alpine but the retention of what is essentially last year’s Singapore sidepod development means the visual change is less marked.
Alfa Romeo
Alfa has detailed its new more aero-profiled front suspension wishbones which are genuinely new for Bahrain and weren’t on the launch car. Other than that, the bodywork and floor changes as revealed on the launch car are listed.
Aston Martin
The new AMR23 has a different, lower, nose tip to its predecessor, a new front wing, lowered track rod, new floor and diffuser. The trick new sidepod top is not listed.
Haas
New nose, front wing, more aero-friendly front suspension (lowered track rod), new floor, brake ducts and more aero-friendly rear suspension. The accentuated channel within the sidepod is not detailed.
AlphaTauri
Better front tyre wake is what the team has been chasing in its changes to the nose, front wing, front suspension and front brake ducts. The change to the bulk of the upper bodywork is described as: “The raised inlet increases the size of the ‘undercut’ which allows it to feed better flow to the floor edges downstream to increase their loading…. The shrinking of the upper engine cover and the raising of the exit has been done to reduce local lift and improve the onset flow to the rear wing and lower beam wing to allow them to generate more downforce more efficiently.”
Williams
The new nose now joins to all the front wing elements rather than having the top one floating (the opposite change to Ferrari). Revised rear wing mounting method, totally reshaped sidepods (made possible by rearranging of internal cooling architecture).
