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It is one of the time-worn tropes of Hollywood storytelling, and a pillar of the classical three-act structure, that the hero of the piece must at some point be sorely tested and laid low. Whether delivered to rock bottom by accident or their own hubris, our hero then dusts themselves down and through some form of equally challenging self-improvement proceeds towards the resolution.
You might have thought that McLaren reached its nadir in 2015, when the team's much-vaunted new relationship with Honda delivered little in the manner of results, but plenty in the way of festering rancour. Then - after brief glimmers of hope in 2016 - '17 proved similarly wretched, costing the head of long-time figurehead Ron Dennis.
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