Ooh, the Alfa Romeo C43 F1 car looks a bit good

Alfa Romeo drivers Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu have unveiled the team’s new C43 ahead of the car’s first shakedown in Barcelona later this week.

This is Alfa’s final year in F1, don’t forget, before the team reverts to being Sauber for a bit before new owners Audi take over from 2026 onwards.

And so the livery designers have decided to go out on a high, producing a sleek-looking livery that blends red with much black. Probably for weight-saving reasons as much as anything else.

Alfa says the C43 is an evolution of last year’s car that ‘incorporates several updates and completely new parts’, largely caused by the FIA changing the regs last year to clamp down on excessive bouncing.

And while the images above are only computer-generated renders, the show-car used in the launch was immediately put up for auction. The bid stands at £1,000 at the time of typing, but there’s a fortnight still to run. Go on, you know it’ll look fabulous in your living room.

“The C43 is finally here, and I cannot wait to bring it out on track,” said Bottas. “I really like our new livery, I think it’s stunning, and a fine evolution from last year’s one.

“It’s been an interesting first season with the team, we made some pretty solid progress together, and now there’s only one direction to follow: up, higher, and better.”

And his teammate Guanyu added: “The expectation for this year is definitely higher, and I will carry all the experience from my rookie season into 2023. I’m excited for what’s coming, and I’m fully ready to attack.”

It’s immediately clear that the C43 will be taking the fight straight to Ferrari, if only to establish itself as the prettiest red car on the grid, if nothing else.

Oh, and Alfa Romeo isn’t using a team principal this year, having lost old boss Fred Vasseur to, yup, Ferrari. No, instead it has installed Alessandro Alunni Bravi as MD and ‘Team Representative’ to be the media-facing, er, face of the operation, as others are tasked with the day-to-day running of the team.

“Our new car is the result of months of work, but today is just the beginning of a journey: we need to keep working hard, with humility and dedication, to bring performance to the track,” said Bravi. “Everyone in the team is committed to this target and we are confident we will reap the rewards of our work.”

No doubt they’ll be hoping the reward involves finishing higher up in the constructors’ championship: Alfa made a fast start in 2022, and despite struggling in the second half of the season they clung on to sixth place, finishing level on points with Aston Martin.

Next up on the F1 launch schedule is AlphaTauri on 11 February, followed by Aston and McLaren two days later.