Alfa Romeo has launched its 2023 car in Switzerland as it showed off the C43 that features what the team describes as “brave” major updates to the rear end and sidepods.

The Hinwil-based team started last year strongly but faded as the season went on, and only just held off Aston Martin for sixth place in the constructors’ championship. After unveiling the new car in Zurich on Tuesday, Alfa Romeo technical director Jan Monchaux says the focus has been on a new concept that required significant work towards the rear of the car.

“We concentrated mainly on the rear part of the car where we just wanted to be brave enough to do the next step in terms of pure development on the rear end which opened the door to a lot of other solutions we couldn’t implement last year,” Monchaux said.

“In effect we decided to change the rear axis and redo the rear suspension and the gearbox casing which opened the door to new layouts – especially on the cooling side – which then once it was in place allowed us to develop the bodywork as we have, which last year wasn’t possible. The concept we had followed last year, we were of the opinion had sort of plateaued and to unleash the next level of performance we had to make all the changes.

“So it’s been quite a journey for us because it’s a big, big complex part that we had to redo. Then evidently how all the rear end works with the floor alongside the new regs, so we’ve been putting a lot of effort on the second part of the car, while the front will be successively developed during the season.”

Changes can also be seen to the sidepod inlets but reliability was another weakness for Alfa Romeo in 2022 that Monchaux says has been a priority for the team to fix as part of the C43’s development.

“Throughout the course of the season it also became relatively clear that we had reliability issues which then became other ones, so there are a lot of things we changed on the car but also internally in terms of processes to address that topic.

“Historically we were always very strong with reliability but last year we somehow lost a little bit of what used to be one of our biggest strengths, so it has been one of the major areas of focus for us this last winter.”

The C43 also features an updated Alfa Romeo livery including black instead of white alongside the iconic red, and the new-look car will undergo a two-day shakedown in Barcelona at the end of this week.

“I find the car well born, it looks mean – not only the new geometries but also the livery that gives it an extra level of being mean. I find the car pretty sexy but then again will it be quick enough? This we will see at the start of the season.

“Our hopes are high that we can continue where we ended up the season and fight for the high positions in the midfield, but we have to be a bit patient.

“First we have homework to do in the winter tests to also prepare for the first race. So we go step-by-step. At the end of this week we go to Barcelona, then we will go to Bahrain to do testing and my team and me have a lot of boxes to tick, and then the week after we will go racing and see.”