Aston Martin unveils AMR23 for 2023 F1 season
Aston Martin has unveiled its latest Formula 1 challenger, the AMR23, at an event at its new 400,000 square ft engineering campus at Silverstone.
The car, which will be driven by Lance Stroll and new signing Fernando Alonso, is the third car to carry the Aston Martin name since the brand returned to F1 at the start of 2021.
In a departure from the trend set throughout the 2023 pre-season, the car showcased at Aston Martin's new facility – which is set to open in the spring of this year – is the same specification it will start the season with, and is said to be a “considerable evolution” of last year’s car.
“The second half of 2022 showed real signs of progress as we worked hard on car development. For this year, our aim must be to build a car that can fully deliver on its performance potential from the first moment it hits the track,” said team principal Mike Krack.
“Making a strong start to the year, and then maintaining that momentum, is necessary if we are to make further advances towards the front of the grid. And as an organization, we are working hard to achieve that, and to further strengthen all areas of the team.
“We already know the proven strengths of our design, engineering and build departments – the arrival of Fernando, partnering Lance, further underlines the sheer depth and range of our driver squad. It feels like every element of this organization is really working well together."
Technical director Dan Fallows revealed during the launch that around two-thirds of the car is expected to change as it evolves over the course of the season. Last year the team struggled at first, but rallied back to finish seventh in the Constructors' championship, equal on points with Alfa Romeo, and it will be looking to continue that trajectory as it embarks on developing into a championship-challenging force in the coming years.
“The design team was adamant that it wanted to tackle these regulations without compromise,” said Fallows. “We want to move up the grid and start challenging the teams at the front – and you can’t do that by sitting back and being conservative.
“AMR23 is a significant development of the car we refined in the latter half of 2022 – and we have improved it in every critical area. It optimizes the solutions we felt would offer us the most performance, and it embodies the joint vision we have embraced and have built together over the recent months.
“Now we need to focus on delivering an ambitious yet efficient program of updates for the first race and across the remainder of the season.”
Visually, inspiration from last year’s title-challenging Red Bull and Ferrari machines is apparent, while the 2023 rule changes around mirrors and the roll bar provide further visual differences from the AMR23’s predecessor, with larger mirrors and stronger roll structures mandated by the 2023 regulations. Not visible is a mandated 15mm rise in the car’s floor to combat porpoising.
Dominik Wilde
Dominik often jokes that he was born in the wrong country – a lover of NASCAR and IndyCar, he covered both in a past life as a junior at Autosport in the UK, but he’s spent most of his career to date covering the sliding and flying antics of the U.S.’ interpretation of rallycross. Rather fitting for a man that says he likes “seeing cars do what they’re not supposed to do”, previously worked for a car stunt show, and once even rolled a rally car with Travis Pastrana. He was also comprehensively beaten in a kart race by Sebastien Loeb once, but who hasn’t been?
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