If 2021 was the controversy-laden epic, last season was more akin to a damp squib of a sequel for Formula One.
Not that it lacked for excitement. The 2022 campaign had its fair share of enthralling races but it was always on a hiding to nothing when compared directly with the fearsome title tussle that preceded it between Max Verstappen and seven-time champion Lewis Hamilton, which ultimately ended in rancour and recrimination.
But looking back through history, it's not all too often that close title battles happen in consecutive seasons anyway.
Last season, which was the first year under the current regulation changes, it proved to be an easier gauntlet to run for Verstappen who made it title number two in succession with the chasing pack barely a speck in his wing mirrors as the season progressed.
But will the Dutchman have it all his own way again when the F1 circus returns for this weekend's 2023 season opener in Bahrain? Or will we see a much closer battle for the drivers' crown?
The short answer to the first question is most probably a resounding yes given the expectation that the order of things towards the top of the grid won't have changed dramatically.
Verstappen is still partnered by Sergio Perez at Red Bull but the relationship between the two drivers was strained by events at the Sao Paulo Grand Prix when the team's number one bluntly - and cryptically from the public and media's vantage point - refushed a team order to let the experienced Mexican past which if he had acceded, could have helped Perez in his ultimately failed bid to take the championship runner-up spot.
Whether Perez will be quite as willing to go out of his way to help Verstappen in a tight title battle as he did in 2021 will be interesting to see, as will the longer-term consequences of the reduced wind tunnel time as punishment for Red Bull's cost cap breach.
Meanwhile, the reserve and test driver role has now been filled by the affable Daniel Ricciardo whose more-than-decade-long stint as a main grid presence takes what the Australian hopes is just a temporary hiatus.
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes are going into this season with more optimism than this time last year when the eight-time constructors champions' 2022 design was not fit for purpose - more fit for 'porpoising' to be more precise.
They eventually edged closer to the front by the end of last year with George Russell managing to gain his first grand prix victory in Sao Paulo in a one-two finish but the expectation is that the Silver Arrows, who will sport black livery this season, are third at best for the opening 2023 rounds, although it must be noted that times in testing aren't always a great gauge.
"Eventually" was a word team principal Toto Wolff reached for in pre-season and it may well be the case that they will grow into it as upgrades are made.
The intra-team battle will be interesting to watch as well. Russell finished ahead of Hamilton in the standings last year. But the latter sacrificed performance earlier in the season in order to be a guinea pig of sorts as the team sought improvements to the car and he also had the edge on more incident-free weekends.
Similarly, it will be fascinating to see how the Ferrari pairing of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz fare individually and collectively.
The Ferrari package was quick at the start of last season with Leclerc taking two wins in the opening three rounds but a litany of strategy mishaps, driver errors and power unit issues saw the Prancing Horse slip out of contention for the drivers and constructors titles.
There is a change at the top with Frederic Vasseur replacing Mattia Binotto as team principal and he has a pre-existing relationship with Leclerc, who is the quickest driver on the grid over one qualifying lap but has a not-too-impressive conversion rate of poles to victories.
Sainz got to grips with the car as 2022 went on, winning his first grand prix at Silverstone, and he will hope to challenge Leclerc more closely this time before Vasseur has a chance to settle on a number one if the title battle sees the lead Ferrari in contention by the midway point of the season.
The impression though is that Ferrari are still chasing when it comes to direct battle with Red Bull although they should have better reliability with their power units in comparison to last year.
Among the midfield, Aston Martin are expected to make the biggest push after a positive pre-season.
Veteran two-time champion Fernando Alonso will lead them in place of the retired four-time championship winner Sebastian Vettel and the Spaniard will hope that for once he's made a good call in his choice of a new team.
Lance Stroll, the son of the team's Canadian billionaire owner Lawrence, suffered a wrist injury in pre-season but appears on course to feature in the Bahrain opener.
Lando Norris was best of the rest of the drivers outside the top three teams in 2022, but he might have his patience tested when it comes to McLaren's hopes given they are tipped to struggle initially.
He will still have an Australian team-mate, but rather than Ricciardo who he trounced convincingly last year, it will be the talented Oscar Piastri whose pedigree includes consecutive title wins in Formula 2 and Formula 3.
The French-owned Alpine, who Piastri turned down in order to join McLaren, are going for an all-French line-up. But it may not be happy families between the combative Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly due to tensions between the pair dating back to their junior years and Ocon's tenacity when battling team-mates.
Both drivers have one grand prix victory in their careers to date and will hope to go toe-to-toe with Aston Martin at the head of the midfield pack.
The Alfa Romeo driver line-up is unchanged with the vastly experienced Valtteri Bottas continuing to be partnered by Zhou Guanyu who will hope to build on a solid rookie season.
Yuki Tsunoda will be under pressure at Red Bull's second team Alpha Tauri as he begins a third year in an F1 career that has shown flashes of talent but erratic performances overall. The diminutive Japanese driver will be joined by 28-year-old Dutchman Nyck de Vries who will be starting his first full season in the sport, having scored two points when deputising in the Williams last year.
Speaking of Williams, the United States which has seen F1 become more popular since the advent of Netflix's Drive to Survive has representation on the grid for the first time since Alexander Rossi in 2015.
Logan Sargeant will fly the stars and stripes as a team-mate to Alex Albon who is going into his fourth full season on the grid and managed half of their paltry eight-point haul last year.
Haas parted ways with Mick Schumacher at the end of 2022 - the son of seven-time champion Michael has since taken on the reserve role at Mercedes - and returning to F1 is Nico Hulkenberg as team-mate to Kevin Magnussen. The German and Dane drivers clashed with each other verbally in the media pen back in 2017 in a transcript that cannot be committed to print here given the bluntness of Magnussen's phraseology but both have moved on from that brief flashpoint.
Speaking of phraseology, while this time last year all the talk was about regulation changes to the cars, much of the build-up to 2023 has been dominated by rules around what drivers can or can't say.
Hamilton and the now-retired Vettel were two of the more vocal drivers on the grid when it came to giving voice to issues from diversity to climate change among others.
But late last year, the sport's governing body, the FIA updated their international sporting code to ban political or religious displays or statements without prior approval from the start of this season.
But amid consternation from much of the F1 grid - Norris among those who called for a U-turn - the FIA moved to release a clarification last month. Drivers will now be allowed to make political statements but only in "exceptional" circumstances.
The Calendar
There is one more grand prix than last season, the number going up to 23, with Las Vegas making its debut in the penultimate race weekend. It would have been a 24-grand prix calendar but a replacement for the cancelled Chinese grand prix was ultimately not sought.
Six of the 2023 grand prix weekends will feature a sprint race, up from three last year.
5 March - Bahrain GP
19 March - Saudi Arabian GP
2 April - Australian GP
30 April - Azerbaijan GP
7 May - Miami GP
21 May - Emilio Romagna GP
28 May - Monaco GP
4 June - Spanish GP
18 June - Canadian GP
2 July - Austrian GP
9 July - British GP
23 July - Hungarian GP
30 July - Belgian GP
27 August - Dutch GP
3 September - Italian GP
17 September - Singapore GP
24 September - Japanese GP
8 October - Qatar GP
22 October - United States GP
29 October - Mexican GP
5 November - Brazilian GP
18 November - Las Vegas GP
26 November - Abu Dhabi GP
