McLaren are back on the brink, but this time Formula 1's second most successful team are one step away from returning to the top of the Formula 1 World Championship after a 26-year wait rather than being at risk of financial failure.
Four years ago, in a 2020 season hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the former champions were in desperate need of a cash injection.
Sunday's season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix could seal a remarkable comeback for the British-based team who have won more races (188) than anyone other than Ferrari (248) - their current rivals for the crown - but were last champions in 1998.
McLaren, who entered in 1966 and are the second longest continuous participants in Formula 1 after Ferrari, lead by 21 points with 44 still available.
They have been top since Baku in September and their status as favourites was only improved by a 10-place grid penalty collected by Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.
Apart from Williams, whose last championship was in 1997 and who have not won a race for 12 years, McLaren have the longest gap between crowns and - despite claims of feeling calm and relaxed - the stress is rising.
"We're trying to do what got us here this weekend and not kind of race differently, not think about the championship," McLaren's American chief executive Zak Brown, who joined in 2016, told reporters at Yas Marina on Saturday.
Norris and Piastri lock out front row for the season finale
Brown admitted, however, that he would be lying if he pretended his mind was not running away with all the calculations: "I won't sleep well tonight but I'm very excited for tomorrow."
That was last night after Lando Norris took pole position and Oscar Piastri completed the front-row lockout in Qualifying. It was very different four years ago, with the team's finances the major worry keeping Brown awake.
"I needed to protect the team from them being aware so everyone could remain in the very positive energetic spirits they were in, because the team was progressing nicely. So it wasn't a comfortable place at all," said Brown.
The last time McLaren were champions was the year Mika Hakkinen took the first of his two drivers' titles, before Michael Schumacher's run of five successive championships for Ferrari. Ron Dennis was then the boss, another era.
Lewis Hamilton, now a seven times F1 world champion, won his first with McLaren in 2008 and the team scored more points than anyone in 2007 but were stripped of them for a spying scandal involving Ferrari data.
McLaren is rich in pedigree but titles have been scarce this century
McLaren, the team of 1980s and 1990s champions Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost, endured three bleak years with Honda engines from 2015-17 and in 2020 were ending a spell with Renault before switching to Mercedes.
Andrea Stella, who previously worked at Ferrari, was promoted to principal in 2022 in what now looks like a masterstroke. Norris debuted in 2019 and Piastri last season in an exciting young driver pairing.
Brown continued: "We'll be massively disappointed to not win it but if that unfortunately happens we need to shift quickly to look at what we've done this year and where we've come from.
"We've come from the brink of insolvency to five race wins, second most podiums consecutively in the history of McLaren, gone down to the last race against Ferrari and beaten Red Bull and Mercedes. If you'd told me at the beginning of 2023, I'd have bit your hand off," Brown said with a grin.
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