Many once-great Formula 1 teams have teetered on a precipice. Very few made it back from there – either never regaining competitiveness or disappearing from F1 altogether.

The closest McLaren came to that point of no return was 1980.

That season being the transition stage from its old order to the Ron Dennis and John Barnard led era is a well-known tale.

But just how tumultuous and tetchy that 1980 campaign was on the inside is easily overlooked, and stands in sharp contrast to the legendary achievements McLaren would go on to accumulate under its new leadership.

An experienced John Watson should have been in his prime that season, and with European Formula 3 champion Alain Prost as his team-mate, McLaren had a driver line-up with huge potential had the car been competitive.

But the fact that the duo scraped together just 11 points (the same tally as Fittipaldi and Arrows), is evidence of one of McLaren’s worst ever campaigns.

It was so wretched Prost ended up in hospital twice after two of the biggest accidents of his career. The second of these led to him fleeing the team for Renault, although this is only a small part of the wider story of 1980.

The chaos and frustration on the track was doubled off it.

McLaren was in a parlous state in the late 1970s and that was exacerbated by the disastrous M28 design for 1979.

That uncompetitive car made lead sponsor Marlboro and parent company Philip Morris twitchy and they lost belief in the Teddy Mayer-led troops. Heading…