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Alpine is the fourth team to announce dates for their 2023 F1 car reveal, confirming that the launch will be held on February 16th, 2023, two days after Ferrari.
The A523 will be revealed at a launch event in London next month, one week before the three-day 2023 pre-season test in Bahrain. As of right now, AlphaTauri will be the first to reveal their season's challenger, followed by Aston Martin and then the Scuderia, while the rest of the teams are yet to confirm their dates.
2022 was quite a strong season for Alpine, who came out on top in their battle for fourth against McLaren in the F1 constructors' championship. In the upcoming season, the French outfit will be bringing in AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly to partner Esteban Ocon and replace two-time world champion Fernando Alonso, who has moved to Aston Martin.
As reported by F1.com, Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi acknowledged the progress made by the team and emphasized that he hopes to keep up the momentum to close the gap to the top. He said:
"I mean, it's always better to finish P4 than P5, no doubt. At the beginning of the season, the goal was to put a new structure in place, which we did, that structure was supposed to deliver innovations, upgrades throughout the entire season, to be more competitive, which we did, which culminate, ultimately in a better position, which we are very close to be doing."
"So, it is important, not just financially but also for the momentum. We said we would try and progress every year to catch up as much as we can with the top teams. It's important not to miss the first step. Hopefully, we're going to get there."
Pierre Gasly discusses challenges of starting a new season with Alpine
For the first time in his F1 career, Pierre Gasly moved out of the Red Bull family to join Alpine in the 2023 season. The Frenchman acknowledged the challenges of joining a new team in terms of the time and effort needed to familiarize himself with the team and integrate as a whole, but also shared that he is trying to keep an open mind in terms of his expectations.
As reported by PlanetF1, the Alpine driver said:
“It’s always a new challenge starting with a new team. You don’t know the race team, the technical team, it always takes time to get up to speed. Maybe sometimes you jump in the car, it all feels very natural, sometimes it doesn’t, it needs a bit of fine-tuning on the way you approach your racing, your driving, etcetera.”
“So I’m just very open-minded, I don’t set any expectations on my side on what I’m going to find there, I just know what I need as a driver, I know the ways I want to do things, and then putting my way of working with their way of working, hopefully can bring something more to what they have already. But I’m going to come into this new team with an open mind for sure because it’s different to what I’ve experienced [at AlphaTauri], here it’s just automatic, I know exactly how we work. These guys know exactly what I need, what I require. They know my feedback language.”
Pierre Gasly finished the 2022 F1 season 14th in the drivers' championship.
