Could this be Red Bull's surprise rival this year?

Aston Martin flew out of the starting blocks with six podiums from eight races for Fernando Alonso, with dreams of race victories created.

But that never transpired and instead, the Silverstone-based outfit slipped back from a strong second in the Constructors' standings to only fifth by the end of the year.

Upgrades mid-season failed to provide the desired effect, though by the end of the campaign, the team was back at it again, still with Alonso carrying the weight of the effort.

If the team can continue the upward trend, there is no reason why they cannot be mentioned in the same list with Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes as potential challengers for silverware.

The right brains in the right places

More to the point, Aston Martin already showed a year ago that it can make a big step up and, so apparently has the right brains in the right places.

The name of former Red Bull aerodynamics chief Dan Fallows is often mentioned and praised, which may explain why the 2023 chassis showed some Red Bull characteristics. If the premise is correct, the team could theoretically build upon the foundation provided by the AMR23 for a long time.

Now that we're a year on, all those people should be even more in tune with each other, and don't forget, too, that this is the first new year in which the new state-of-the-art factory is fully operative. If a Formula 1 team is a puzzle of which all the pieces must fall properly into place, then Aston Martin should be able to take another significant step in 2024.

Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren are often mentioned as potential challengers to Red Bull, but perhaps it would not be unwise to include Aston Martin directly in this list.