by It’s McLaren and Aston Martin’s turn in the spotlight to kick off the week, with both British teams revealing their new-look 2023 cars.
Following AlphaTauri’s 2023 reveal in New York on Saturday, car launches follow quickly this week as Monday marks the first “two launches in one day” of the year.
McLaren and Aston Martin are both set to take the covers off their 2023 machines, with big question marks and huge excitement over how these two cars will stack up, particularly against each other, as potential leaders in the upper part of midfield.
It’s a season of some change for McLaren, with Oscar Piastri joining the team in place of the ousted Daniel Ricciardo to race alongside now veteran Lando Norris. The team leader Andreas Seidl has also left: the German left to join Sauber while, in his place, Andrea Stella left his role as trackside engineer to become the team leader.
McLaren have also signed a major new sponsor for this season, getting former title sponsor Renault DP World as their logistics partner for 2023.
The team also broke with tradition regarding car naming, with McLaren opting to break away from the expected ‘MCL37’ to carry on the naming structure used by the team since the early 1980s. Instead, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Bruce McLaren’s homonymous team, the car will be called MCL60.
What might the McLaren MCL60 look like?
The MCL60 will be revealed to the world at 5pm UK time (6pm CET), with the team holding an online launch which will be streamed on their social media channels.
With McLaren returning to its papaya-coloured roots in recent years, there is little reason to believe that the color scheme for this year will be significantly different, particularly given the branding of colors in Formula E and IndyCar. However, with teams aiming to save as much weight as possible, it’s possible the MCL60 livery could feature more black to match the papaya and blue.
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Both Norris and Piastri will be in attendance for the big reveal, while Stella will make her first public appearance as crew chief, alongside CEO Zak Brown.
Viewers of the online launch will also be able to join guest hosts Vikkstar123 and Ariana Bravo for a journey through the team’s 60-year history.
The McLaren launch will last around 20 minutes, according to the team, meaning there’s barely time for tea before settling in for the 7pm Aston Martin launch event.
Aston Martin AMR23 to show the world
Lawrence Stroll’s squad is undergoing a period of off-track rejuvenation, with a new state-of-the-art factory under construction to allow the squad to emerge from the factory set up by Eddie Jordan for his squad in the early 1990s.
While this won’t affect 2023 just yet, the change of drivers could: Sebastian Vettel has retired from Formula 1 and, in his place, double world champion Fernando Alonso has cut his ties with Alpine to jump ship and run green in 2023.
Alonso and Lance Stroll make for an interesting partnership, with the Spaniard’s notorious temper seemingly at odds with the political game, he will no doubt be forced to play racing alongside the team owner’s son.
Both drivers will be there to reveal the AMR23 and have promised that “this is not a showcar”. The launch starts at 7pm UK time (8pm CET) and will take place in the new factory, streamed live on the Aston Martin YouTube channel, team website, TikTok and Facebook.
The reveal will be hosted by Rachel Brookes and broadcast simultaneously on Sky Sports F1.
In addition to Alonso and Stroll, Felipe Drugovich, Stoffel Vandoorne, Jessica Hawkins, Pedro de la Rosa, Lawrence Stroll and crew chief Mike Krack will be in attendance along with Dan Fallows and Eric Blandin.
Without major sponsorship changes, the car’s livery is likely to be quite similar to that of 2022. While changes have been made to the shade of green used post-2021 to liven up the color scheme for TV images, the refined livery used last season seemed to tick all the boxes. If changes are made, expect them to be small!
