The ominous alarm bell ringing after F1 launch season

As bouncers ushered out the final guests from Alpine’s new car after-party in London in the early hours of Friday morning, it marked the official end of Formula 1’s 2023 launch season.

In little more than two weeks, from the simple new livery press release Haas sent out on 31 January, to Alpine’s Printworks event in Surrey Quays, via New York, Grove, Zurich, Woking, Silverstone and Maranello, it’s been quite a rollercoaster. We’ve had surprises, disappointments, annoyances, intrigue, a couple of shambolic moments, a few laughs, plus Zinedine Zidane along the way.

While the ultimate proof of the teams' respective work will not emerge until we hit Q3 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, launches still offer enough of a fascinating insight into the mindset teams have about their winter efforts. Already we’ve some interesting extremes, from those that you sense are not where they need to be, and those who seem desperate to get out there and see just how much progress they have actually made.

Nothing contrasted those two stances more than Monday’s back-to-back launch of the new McLaren and Aston Martin cars.

In the morning at Woking, speaking under embargo until the official event happened later in the day, the message coming out was one of extreme realism that pointed to a potentially difficult start to the year. New team principal Andrea Stella’s confession that it was ‘not entirely happy’ with its launch car, but optimistic that it should take a good step soon, suggested that the squad knows it has left performance on the table.

PLUS: Why McLaren's 2023 may be another building year

He explained that McLaren had unlocked a development path in the windtunnel that had opened up extra performance, but it was something that was not on the current MCL60 and would not be ready until perhaps the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. And, such is the competitive nature of F1, knowing that the launch spec car is not performing as well as it should do makes it obvious that a team is going to be behind.

New McLaren principal Andrea Stella played down expectations at the MCL60's launch

Photo by: McLaren

“It's such a competitive game,” added Stella. “Normally you need to be totally happy and totally at the top of what you can do, to achieve your targets.”

McLaren’s downbeat assessment of where it stacks up right now was in complete contrast to the optimistic mood coming out of Aston Martin later that evening.

The major overhaul of the AMR23, with the squad boasting 95% of the car is entirely new parts, spoke volumes about the push it has made as the momentum begins to gather after Lawrence Stroll’s huge investment. The aggressive aero revamp has already piqued the interest of rivals, who think that it points to a big leap forward in potential for a squad that is already boosted by the arrival of Fernando Alonso.

And while there was no bold declaration that Aston Martin was poised to become a thorn in the side of Red Bull, Mercedes and Ferrari just yet, the messaging coming out was definitely pointing in one direction.

Aside from the positive vibes of Aston Martin and Ferrari, the realism of McLaren, and the cautiousness of Mercedes, Red Bull has left us with something totally different: a void of information

As team owner Stroll said on stage: “The passion comes from excitement. When I get excited about something, I get very passionate. And when I get very passionate, I win.”

Launches do lay down clear themes, as team bosses, designers and communication chiefs all have to align in getting the right message across.

Perhaps the most significant launch for setting the tone for the season ahead was Ferrari. Its bold, brave, noisy launch, which included live shakedown laps of the SF-23, put an end to any suggestion that it had been left under a dark cloud by the team boss change over the winter.

PLUS: How a confident Ferrari launch has changed the perception of its 2023 F1 chances

New chief Frederic Vasseur seemed his usual relaxed and laughing self, while both Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were in good spirits as they prepare for a big-pressure season where Ferrari needs to raise its game and not repeat the reliability and strategy blunders that proved so costly in 2022.

Ferrari's launch event featured a shakedown of its SF-23, with undertones of optimism

Photo by: Ferrari

But aside from the positive vibes of Aston Martin and Ferrari, the realism of McLaren, and the cautiousness of Mercedes, Red Bull has left us with something totally different: a void of information.

The reigning champion squad caused a stir, for both the right and wrong reasons, with its launch in New York. While not winning many fans with a long, drawn-out event, and then pretending a repainted RB18 was the new RB19, the scale of its effort and the new partnership with Ford spoke volumes about the team’s ambition. But in terms of its immediate competitive fortunes, it has played things superbly close to its chest.

The vision it has released of the real RB19 was carefully framed from its shakedown to ensure that nobody, especially rival teams, could get a good close up look at the new challenger. And, although some spy footage of the car from a bystander at Silverstone did emerge on social media, the quality was not especially good enough to dive deep into the kind of details that now make the difference with car performance.

With Red Bull team boss Christian Horner and both its drivers being very coy about any changes made to the car, and not a word from its key technical figures, the deliberate black-out of information from Milton Keynes has left it as perhaps the biggest uncertainty as the countdown to testing gets underway.

Us seeing nothing, and them saying little, has not been great in delivering the answers we want, but should we really expect anything else from a team that has historically been so aggressive in its quest for success? After all, there’s no championship points to be won by giving away all your secrets right now.

And if this writer were one of Red Bull’s rivals, it is their silence – rather than the bullish optimism of some other squads – that would create a sense of unease at this moment in time, when it comes to race one potential.

For as the famous saying goes: “Beware the quiet man. For while others speak, he watches. And while others act, he plans. And when they finally rest…he strikes.”

Red Bull's RB19 has barely been seen in the flesh, not even at its own launch...

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool