Revealed: The three teams bringing upgrades to the Qatar Grand Prix

Only Alpine, AlphaTauri and Alfa Romeo have confirmed upgrades for the Qatar Grand Prix weekend with rivals, especially Haas, holding off until Austin.

This weekend’s sprint race at the Losail circuit marks round 17 of the 22-race 2023 calendar.

As such the majority of the teams have already turned their full focus onto 2024 and their new challengers, but there are still developments that can be trialed this season.

Only three teams have brought new parts to the Losail circuit

As such Alpine have brought a new floor to the Qatar Grand Prix, the team debuting changes that include a taller diffuser sidewall cut-out that is intended to bring a small gain in downforce at the low rear ride height setting.

The car also sports a new rear corner with a revised orientation of the rear drum lower flick geometry to improve both drag and downforce.

The cooling louvres have been tweaked, but those will be trialed in first practice on Friday with the team seeking new ways to lower engine temperature.

As for Alfa Romeo, the team trying to improve on their P9 in the championship where they trail Haas by two points, they’ll have a new beam wing for the sprint weekend.

That is the latest step in the team’s continued upgrade path and is intended to enhance the aero flow throughout the bodywork of the car.

Having scored just one point in the last eight races, Alfa Romeo team representative Alessandro Alunni Bravi is hoping of a good run-in to the season finale in Abu Dhabi.

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“We head to Qatar with the determination to extract all we can from our weekend. We came back from the Asian double-header with no points added to our tally, but there were still some positives to take: we had decent pace in Suzuka, and we were not too far from our direct competitors, as we learned more about the upgrade package we recently introduced,” he said.

“What we missed was to put everything together when it mattered and, as we head to Doha, this is what the entire team must work for. We have to be at the top of our performance from the only practice session on Friday onwards, even more crucial than usual with a Sprint Event.

“By putting our focus onto extracting more performance from our package, we’ll be able to make that extra step forward to get back into the top ten.”

Finally, AlphaTauri, who initially brought a big upgrade package to the track in Singapore, have a new floor edge.

The team claims that will reduce the pressure at the end of the floor and draw more mass flow been the floor fences. The end result should, the team hopes, be an increase in local load.

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