The Alfa Romeo C43 is Sauber's 2023 F1 challenger

07th February 2023

Ethan Jupp

What is to be a curious transitional stage for Sauber has begun, with the reveal of the final F1 car of the Alfa Romeo era. Meet the C43, the car that takes the honour of being the first actual reveal of the year, given that in part at least, it’s not just the livery that’s new on this show car.

We’ll start with the livery, as it is dramatically different to last year’s car. Going all black and red – with a lot of black indeed – it’s tough not to draw comparisons to Ferrari given the similar all-black splitter and sides of the nose. If not the F1 75, it shares that layout with the 643 of 1991.

Rearwards of the front suspension it does get a bit more ‘Alfa’ as the black bleeds up and over the car, across the central air intake, with the red continuing to the rest of the rear of the car. Red highlighted wheels are a nice contrast and in the place of last year’s title sponsor Orlen, comes Stake, after Orlen’s transfer to Alpha Tauri for 2023.

Technically speaking at the front we can note a revised bat wing-like splitter and suspension mounting points, while the slimmer side pods feature a new slim line of cooling vents, twinned with another wider pair of slashed areas atop the engine cover.

The floor is especially interesting, with dramatically feathered edges ahead of the rear wheels. The top inlet appears revised too, with two stages feeding both the engine inlet and cooling needs. It’ll also have received revisions in terms of safety and strength, following Zhou Guanyu’s dramatic accident at Silverstone last year. The rear end is nicely cannon-flared, to get all that heat out efficiently.

It’s all change in fact for Sauber this year, as long-time leader Fred Vasseur has departed for the leadership role at Ferrari. There’s no direct replacement Team Principal as such, although Andreas Seidl made a shock departure from McLaren to take up the CEO position at the team. For now, the closest thing we have to a Team Principle is Alessandro Alunni, in the position of ‘official team representative’.

One thing that isn’t changing at Alfa this year is the driver lineup. Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu had impressive seasons last year in what was a temperamental car and will be looking to build on those performances again this year.

As above, this will be the final year that Alfa Romeo is the lead brand for the Sauber team, following Audi’s purchase of a minority stake last year, with a view to supplying engines, a four-ringed livery and a manufacturer sponsorship from 2026.