The tangible steps Alpine has taken to meeting its humble F1 2023 targets

By:

Matt Kew

Feb 27, 2023, 3:30 PM

Alpine's stated aim of edging clear of the chasing pack doesn’t sound very ambitious. But when margins are this fine, it’s a target forged in realism, for a team that does appear to be on the up

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The landmark ground-effects reset was conceived to bring about a more spectacular Formula 1. A rules overhaul would jumble the competitive order and, on top of that, ease the ability of closely matched cars to overtake. Regardless of the immediate success of the sweeping changes, for 2023 Alpine intends to fly in the face of those good intentions. It wants to operate in a no man’s land.

Searing Singapore heat and high altitude in Mexico wreaked havoc with the Renault engine last season. Its water pump gave up the ghost too often as well. Without the repeat failures, there wouldn’t have been such a hotly contested scrap with McLaren for fourth in the 2022 constructors’ championship. That’s what Alpine believes. In response, for this year’s A523 challenger (not named after the road connecting Greater Manchester), the powertrain division based in Viry-Chatillon has worked to reinforce the revised turbocharger layout.

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Matt Kew

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Matt Kew is Autosport’s F1 Editor, a role he has held since March 2022 following stints covering Formula E, Extreme E and the British Touring Car Championship.

Matt joined Autosport in 2018 to work predominantly on the magazine, but his relentless quoting of Alan Partridge meant office colleagues soon thought he would be better-suited to increased field work.

Needless to say, Matt had the last laugh when he won the Motorsport UK Young Journalist of the Year Award in 2019.

His interest in motorsport was sparked by regular trips to watch ASCAR crash around Rockingham’s banked oval.

Matt read politics and philosophy at the University of Sheffield - receiving first-class honours for his dissertation assessing the lack of female participation in top-tier motor racing.

He covered a wide variety of national race and rally meetings for Autosport as a freelancer before joining full-time. His best efforts to argue the merits of historic racing are undone by a questionable taste in music and James Bond actors.