Formula 1
By Vlad Roman,
General Manager, Smart Games
With the new year we witness the configuration of the calendar for 2023 and the composition of the teams.
What we know so far!
There will be 23 races, 10 teams, 20 drivers and a lot of emotions, joys or disappointments. The first Grand Prix is scheduled for the weekend of March 3-5 at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain but there will be a test session also held at Sakhir a week earlier. The championship will conclude 800 kilometers further east and 10 months later in Abu Dhabi at the Yas Marina circuit.
2022 gave us a crazy championship, with Ferrari pulling off a remarkable car, with bouncing causing big problems for all teams, but especially for Mercedes and McLaren, we saw Max Verstappen’s record for most wins in a season we rejoiced for the first victory of Russel and Sainz, we recorded the first pole position for Perez and Magnussen, we were disappointed by Max’s refusal to give way to Perez, we were consoled that Hamilton he finished the season without a win and especially I was with Vettel at the last Formula 1 race… although we hope to see him on the circuit again.
At the start of the season Red Bull, Ferrari, Mercedes and Alfa Romeo keep their main drivers, Alonso replaces Vettel at Aston Martin, Riciardo is replaced by McLaren with Oscar Piastri, Gasly leaves Alpha Tauri to join Ocon at Alpine and Nyck De Vries goes in his place, Logan Sargeant appears at Williams and Hass brings Nico Hulkenberg in place of Mick Schumacher.
We expect a season with many unknowns and surprises that will not be long in coming, until then we await the presentation of this year’s single-seaters, Williams will be the first team to launch the new car on February 6 and in the following week Alpha Tauri, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Alpine and McLaren. The rest of the teams will announce the release date later.
For the 2023 season, the FIA has established new rules, the ground clearance will be raised by 15mm to reduce the effect of vertical oscillation, the dimensions of the rear-view mirrors will be increased, the protection frame for the pilots will be modified, and the maximum budget will be reduced to 135 million dollars, 7 million less than in 2022.
The FIA decided to change the qualifying format, for two races in the calendar the teams will be forced to use hard tires in Q1, medium tires in Q2 and soft tires in Q3. If the qualifying session will be held in the rain, then the rule no longer applies. Also, the format aims to reduce the set of tires used during a Grand Prix weekend, if until now the teams benefited from 13 sets of tires this year they will have only 11 at their disposal.
The 2023 season will see 6 sprint races taking place in Azerbaijan, Austria, Belgium, USA and Brazil, plus one more location to be announced. Las Vegas is the big news in the calendar, formula 1 will hit the street circuit in the gambling capital in November. The Russian Grand Prix is missing from the program, the contract being suspended a year in advance, after the aggression of the Russian army in Ukraine, and the Chinese Grand Prix, which was canceled due to the recent cases of COVID.
2022 was the year of the Oracle Red Bull Racing – Max Verstappen, and the bookmakers have already prepared their Formula 1 2023 betting offer and are giving the Dutch driver the win next season as well. He will have a tough task in a fierce battle with Lewis Hamilton, the number two favorite to win the grand trophy, Lando Norris or Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc is the fourth odds-on favorite despite finishing second in the drivers’ standings for the 2022 season.
At the moment, Max Verstappen has odds of 1.72, Lewis Hamilton has odds of 3.50, and George Russell odds of 7.00.
Will we have surprises among the builders as well? Red Bull start with the first chance, but Scuderia Ferrari, McLaren or Mercedes will give everything to regain their reputation as winners. Red Bull have odds of 2.00 to win the trophy, while Mercedes are in second place with odds of 2.10. The third position is occupied by Ferrari with a odds of 7.00.
But we have to wait until March so all we have to do is play a little with the new Formula X slot machine from IGT.
