Alfa Romeo C43 – What Has Changed?

Alfa Romeo was the first team to present the real 2023 car with its brand-new black and red livery. Hereafter are all the main changes of the C43, some of them explained by technical director Jan Monchaux.

As Monchaux said, he and his staff mainly focused on the rear part of the car since they felt it is the area where they can improve the performance of the C43 by a larger margin.

So, let’s proceed in order. The analysis will start from the back of the car and will move towards the front, where just minor changes have been made.

By looking at the C43 from the back, it is easy to spot the first difference. The beam wing now features some sort of waves on the upper part, while the rear wing has not changed much, it only has sharper angles, but its configuration can vary depending on the setup and the track.

Then, from an areal point of view, the engine cover is now completely straight and helps the airflow reach the beam and rear wing. This part also features the air outlets (that can also be seen on the sidepods) and is carved out, once again, to improve the airflow.

Plus, on the side, just after the word Alfa Romeo, the engine cover seems to have a “tube” shape, a design that tries to minimize the drag of the car by shrinking this area of the engine cover.

Switching the focus to the floor, one of the most important parts of a Formula 1 car, Alfa Romeo chose to opt for a segmented design. In fact, the floor seems to be “cut” into nine small parts in the middle part, while the zone right before the rear tires is just flat and smooth without “cuts”.

Moving up to the sidepods area, the team decided to take inspiration from Ferrari and designed the cooling inlets similar to the one used by the Maranello-based team on its F1-75. Moreover, even though the upper part of the sidepod is still pretty wide, Alfa Romeo did not continue with the idea of the 2022 Ferrari (which had wide, carved sidepods), but aimed for a different solution. More specifically, the one developed by Red Bull, which might help the team have more margin for development. The shape is now more curved and goes downwards towards the rear of the car.

Alfa kept its old design of the air box, which is divided into four parts and has been adapted to the new FIA rules after Guanyu Zhou’s crash in Silverstone.

The last change can be seen in the rearview mirrors, which are now bigger, following the 2023 rules. Nothing much can be mentioned regarding the front of the C43, as Monchaux said the main focus was the rear. Despite this, he confirmed that some changes will be seen on the front end in Bahrain during the first race of the year.

Of course, many internal changes have been made to the car like the gearbox casing and some parts of the engine and cooling system in order to address the reliability issues faced last year.

Written by Davide Bini.