24 Races. 3 Rookies. 1 New racing series. Here is our short round up of all the changes you can expect to see in the 2023 Formula 1 season!
Teams & Drivers
As the 2022 season came to an end, F1 said goodbye to 4-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel as he retired from racing. In addition, the 2023 line-up will not feature Mick Schumacher, Nicholas Latifi, and most surprisingly fan favorite, Daniel Ricciardo. However, with every goodbye, we welcome a host of new faces to the grid including a more familiar one. Oscar Piastri, Nyck de Vries and Logan Sargeant all make their F1 debuts, racing for Mclaren, AlphaTauri and Williams respectively. Nico Hulkenberg was part of the driver line-up from 2010 to 2019. He became the go-to reserve driver, completing 3 races in 2020 and 2 races in 2022 and in 2023 we will see him back on the grid full time for Haas. Finally, to round up the driver changes, 2-time World Champion Fernando Alonso departs Alpine to replace Vettel at Aston Martin whilst Pierre Gasly fills the vacant spot at Alpine.
But 2023 has not only seen a large shake up in the driver’s market, 4 of the 10 teams have changed their team principal. The person who is in overall charge of the team, serving as the public face of the team and issuing team orders, the overall success of an F1 team is largely attributed to the team principal. In 2023, Ferrari has replaced Mattia Binotto with Alfa Romeo’s Frederic Vasseur. Mclaren’s Andreas Seidl moves to take on a new role at Alfa Romeo, and the team promote executive director Andrea Stella to his position. In addition, Jost Capito confirms he is stepping down from his position at Williams. As we head into the early part of 2023, we still wait to hear who will be at the helm of Williams and Alfa Romeo for the upcoming season.
The 2023 Calendar
With a record breaking 24 Grand Prix races including a good mixture of old-school circuits such as Silverstone, Spa-Francorchamps and Monza, alongside new and modern tracks such as the brand-new Las Vegas Grand Prix, Singapore and Miami, the 2023 calendar is causing excitement all round.
In late 2022, it was confirmed the Chinese Grand Prix, scheduled for the 16th April 2023, will not take place. Round 4 continues to remain TBC on the calendar whilst rumors circulate on whether Portugal, Malaysia or Turkey could be suitable candidates to fill the vacant slot.
In addition to a record breaking calendar, 2023 will see 6 Sprint events to be held in Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, Qatar, United States and Brazil. These weekends will provide even more action, with qualifying taking place on Friday, the Sprint on Saturday and the main Race on Sunday.
In addition, Formula 2 and Formula 3 will both see record breaking calendars in 2023 with 14 and 10 races respectively. Both series have provided current F1 stars including Charles Leclerc, George Russell, Lando Norris and Alex Albon to name a few.
The new all-female F1 Academy series will debut in 2023 with a schedule that is still to be confirmed. The Academy will consist of five established F2 and F3 teams with a total of 15 drivers. The series aims to develop and prepare young female drivers to progress to higher levels of competition including W Series, F2 and F3.
New Rules
Dominating the 2023 rule changes is the continuous improvement in safety in the sport, alongside the aim to eradicate the porpoising phenomenon. In the technical aspect the minimum ride height will be increased to 15mm whilst the minimum weight of the cars has dropped by 2kg. In addition the roll hoops have been strengthened following Guanyu’s crash at Silverstone and the mirrors have been made larger to offer a clearer rear view.
Other significant amendments we will see in 2023, include the clarification of grid positions after multiple penalties have been applied. As a test, at two qualifying sessions we will see drivers required to use a specific tyre type in each stage of qualifying (Q1 hard, Q2 medium, Q3 soft) to try to reduce the total number of tyre sets allowed during the race weekend.
With all the changes across both the teams, drivers and to the rules we can not wait to see what the 2023 F1 season has to hold. Remember to check out our events page to see where Camping F1 will be in 2023. We look forward to seeing you in 2023!