2023 F1 Season

The 2023 FIA Formula One World Championship is a planned motor racing championship for Formula One cars which will be the 74th running of the Formula One World Championship. It is recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), the governing body of international motorsport, as the highest class of competition for open-wheel racing cars. The championship is due to be contested over a record twenty-three , which will be held around the world, and is scheduled to begin in March and end in November.

Drivers and teams are scheduled to compete for the titles of World Drivers' Champion and World Constructors' Champion, respectively. Max Verstappen, driving for  Red Bull Racing, is due to be the reigning Drivers' Champion, while his team is due to be the reigning Constructors' Champion.

Entries

The following constructors and drivers are under contract to compete in the 2023 World Championship. All teams are due to compete with tyres supplied by Pirelli. Each team is required to enter at least two drivers, one for each of the two mandatory cars.

Team changes

Honda returns as a named engine supplier to Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri, with both teams' engines badged as Honda RBPT. While Red Bull Powertrains had planned to take over assembly and maintenance of the engines from this championship onwards, it was later agreed that Honda would continue its technical support of Red Bull Racing and AlphaTauri until the end of 2025.

Driver changes

Sebastian Vettel retired at the end of the 2022 championship, ending his Formula One career after 16 seasons. His place at Aston Martin was taken by Fernando Alonso, who left Alpine after two seasons. His replacement was initially announced as the 2021 Formula 2 Champion and reserve driver Oscar Piastri. Shortly after the announcement, Piastri stated that he had not signed a contract for 2023 and that he would not be driving for Alpine. The FIA Contract Recognition Board ruled that he did not have any contractual obligations to race for Alpine. Pierre Gasly, who had a contract to drive for AlphaTauri, is due to move to Alpine, replacing Alonso. Gasly is due to be replaced by the 2020–21 Formula E and 2019 Formula 2 Champion Nyck de Vries.

Daniel Ricciardo left McLaren after two seasons. Although he had a contract to drive for the team in 2023, it was terminated during the 2022 championship by mutual agreement. Ricciardo's seat is due to be filled by Piastri, who will make his Formula One debut. Nicholas Latifi left Williams after spending three seasons with the team. His seat is due to be filled by Logan Sargeant, who would make his Formula One debut by graduating from Formula 2, as well as becoming the first American Formula One driver to compete since Alexander Rossi in with former team Marussia. Mick Schumacher left Haas after two seasons. His seat is due to be taken by Nico Hülkenberg, who last competed in Formula One as a full-time race driver in with former team Renault.

Calendar

The 2023 calendar contains twenty-three Grands Prix.

Calendar expansion and changes

* The Qatar Grand Prix is scheduled to return to the calendar, after last being held in . The Grand Prix, along with the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, was initially planned to be moved to a new purpose-built circuit, before both being retained in Lusail and Jeddah, respectively.
* The Las Vegas Grand Prix is due to make its debut, with the race planned to be held in November on a new street track across the Las Vegas Strip. The last Grand Prix held in Las Vegas was the 1982 Caesars Palace Grand Prix. Three races will be held in the United States in the same season for the first time since .
* The Russian Grand Prix was under contract to feature on the 2023 calendar. It was originally meant to switch its venue from the Sochi Autodrom to Igora Drive, in Novozhilovo, located about from Saint Petersburg. However, the Grand Prix had its contract terminated in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
* The French Grand Prix will not feature on the 2023 calendar although the promoters of the Grand Prix stated that they would aim for a rotational race deal by sharing its slot with other Grands Prix.
* The Chinese Grand Prix was initially due to be part of the calendar after last being held in , but it was cancelled for the fourth consecutive year due to the ongoing difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in the country.

Regulation changes

Technical regulations

Changes to reduce porpoising

Following large amounts of porpoising during , the FIA is proposing to introduce changes to the regulations to limit excessive porpoising. Floor edges would be raised by and the throat of the diffuser would also be raised, by a yet to be determined amount. The diffuser edge stiffness will be increased and an additional sensor will be mandated to monitor the porpoising phenomenon more effectively. Lateral floor deflection tests are also due to be more stringent.

Changes to roll hoop design regulations

Following Zhou Guanyu's crash at the 2022 British Grand Prix, a rounded top will now be required on the roll hoop, which will reduce the chance of it digging into the ground during an accident; a change will be made to ensure a minimum height for the point of application of the homologation test; there will be a new physical homologation test where the load pushes the roll hoop in the forward direction; there will be a definition of new tests, to be carried out by calculation.

Banning of use of slot gap separators on front wings

The FIA altered the wording of the aerodynamic regulations, after Mercedes produced a front wing which exploited a potential loop-hole in the regulations. Mercedes introduced slot gap separators on their front wings at the 2022 United States Grand Prix, although they did not intend to run them at the event. Rival teams argued that the new front wing was illegal. Mercedes argued that the regulations allowed slot-gap separators as they were "primarily" there for "mechanical, structural or measurement reasons", and therefore any secondary aerodynamic benefit would be allowed. The FIA ruled that the brackets were illegal at the following 2022 Mexico City Grand Prix, and changed the wording of the regulations to avoid other teams using a similar argument in the future.

Mirror size changes

The size of the mirrors will be increased for better rearward visibility.

Sporting regulations

With the intention of making tyre usage more sustainable in the future, Formula One will trial a reduction in allocated tyre sets from 13 to 11 at two races in 2023. At these races the use of tyres in qualifying will be mandated as hard in Q1, medium in Q2 and soft in Q3, assuming that the weather is dry. Teams are usually free to choose which tyre compound they run during qualifying.

Pirelli announced a change to the available tyre compounds for 2023, with a compound to be inserted between the old C1 and C2 compounds. This change is supposed to provide teams with more flexible strategy options after criticism towards the original C1 compound for a large drop in grip compared to the other tyres.

The budget cap is reduced to $135 million. It was originally set at $140m in before being increased to $142.4m to account for inflation.

There will be only three days of pre-season testing, a reduction from 2022 when there were six days.

Sprint events

The sprint format is due to be run at six Grands Prix from this season onwards, compared to three in and . It is due to take place at the Azerbaijan, Austrian, Belgian, Qatar, United States and São Paulo Grands Prix.

Enactment of political gestures

The FIA's International Sporting Code (ISC) was updated to include stricter controls on drivers and teams making "political, religious and personal statements". Article 12.2.1n was introduced stating that drivers and teams must receive the FIA's permission before conducting a political statement or protest and that any protest without permission would be considered a breach of the FIA's neutrality rules. The FIA stated the update to the ISC was done to move it in line with the ethical principles of political neutrality laid out by the International Olympic Committee, which gave formal recognition to the FIA in 2013 through the Olympic Charter.

Relaxation of COVID-19 protocols

The FIA are due to take further steps to relax COVID-19 safety protocols that were first introduced in . These relaxing of restrictions includes the removal of the need for proof of vaccination for those working in the paddock. The FIA previously dropped the requirements for mandatory face masking and COVID-testing in .

Season summary

Pre-season

There is due to be one pre-season test, at the Bahrain International Circuit in Sakhir on 23–25 February.

Notes

References

External links

{{World championships in 2023

Formula One
Formula One seasons
Formula One