A523

Lore & Background

The A523 was first revealed on 16 February 2023 alongside a special pink livery for the first three races of the season. In advance of the launch, Alpine ran the car through 17 laps shared between Gasly and Ocon at the Silverstone Circuit. The car shared several design cues with the AlphaTauri AT03, where push-rod rear suspension was used in lieu of the A522's equivalent pull-rod suspension design, as well as rectangular sidepod inlets, flat-shaped nose, and a raised front wing central section.

Reader's Guide

Opening rounds: Ocon qualified 9th for the season opener in Bahrain whilst Gasly qualified 20th and last for his debut with Alpine after having his lap time deleted for track limits. During the race itself, he recovered to finish 9th after a strategy, holding the fastest lap before Zhou Guanyu pitted and went quicker than him. Meanwhile, Ocon had a bad first race of the season, receiving three different time penalties throughout the race, eventually being retired by his team to save his engine. Alpine left Bahrain 6th in the constructors' championship with 2 points. Ocon qualified 7th for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix with Gasly qualifying 10th. At the start of the race, Gasly made contact with Oscar Piastri, but did not receive damage. Gasly and Ocon were both passed by Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc who were recovering from bad qualifying, but both dropped two places when the safety car came out due to Lance Stroll's retirement. The two could not keep up with the top 4 drivers, so Ocon and Gasly finished 8th and 9th respectively with Ocon scoring his first points of the season. Alpine left Jeddah 5th in the constructors' championship with 8 points. Ocon qualified 11th for the Australian Grand Prix, with Gasly qualifying 9th. At the start, Gasly jumped into 7th before the safety car came out. Ocon, however, slipped back to 15th place after a poor start. When Alex Albon crashed on lap 7, Gasly and Ocon both stayed out and were able to change tyres under the red flag. Gasly and Ocon took the restart 4th and 13th respectively, but Ocon was hit by Nyck de Vries at turn 3, dropping him down the order. Gasly ran in the top 10 for a long time while Ocon made his way back up the order, sitting 10th on lap 54 when another red flag came out due to Kevin Magnussen's crash. At the restart, Ocon moved up to 7th whilst Gasly ran wide at turn 1. However, the race soon turned into disaster as Gasly, in an attempt to rejoin the track, moved right across the track at turn 2, but failed to notice Ocon on his right with Gasly's rear left and Ocon's front left tyres interlocking, causing Gasly to spin into the wall, dragging Ocon along with him in a heavy crash for both drivers. After both left their cars, Ocon said he had a headache from the accident whilst Gasly was apologetic for the incident.

Did You Know?

• Ocon finished third at Monaco, taking his first podium since his win at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
• Gasly scored the team's other podium of the season in third at Zandvoort after qualifying twelfth.