Twelve months ago Pierre Gasly was stuck in reverse gear after his ignominious relegation by Red Bull.
Dropped to the second string of Toro Rosso - now Alpha Tauri - midway through the season, the Frenchman faced a bleak future.
He suffered more personal heartbreak when best friend and F2 driver Anthoine Hubert was killed at last year's Belgian Grand Prix.
But a year on, his stunning victory at yesterday's Italian Grand Prix catapulted Gasly, 24, into the company of the best redemption stories - and injected some much-needed excitement into an otherwise stale season.
Until this weekend, it had been the Lewis Hamilton show with the Briton on course for his sixth win in seven races until disaster struck at the famous Monza circuit.
The six-time world champion ultimately fought his way back to seventh, retaining his 47-point lead the top of the standings, but for once this wasn't about him and his seemingly unbeatable Mercedes.
Instead the plaudits belong to Gasly who held off a nail-biting bid for victory from McLaren's Carlos Sainz to seal his first-ever win in F1.
It was the first time since 2013, when Kimi Raikkonen won with Lotus in Australia, that a team other than Mercedes, Ferrari or Red Bull had taken the chequered flag.
Other records tumbled too, with Gasly becoming the first French driver since Olivier Panis in 1996 to win.
Gasly, unsurprisingly, was in tears as he crossed the line, screaming in delight following his memorable win.
"It’s unbelievable,” he said. "I’m not realising what’s happening right now.
"It was such a crazy race. We capitalised on the red flag. The car was fast out there, we had a pretty fast car behind us.
"I’ve been through so much in the space of 18 months. My first podium in Formula 1 last year, I was already feeling 'wow', with Alpha Tauri, and now my first win in Formula 1 in Monza, I’m struggling to realise it."
Gasly ultimately profited after Hamilton was forced to serve a 10-second stop-and-go penalty for stopping to change tyres when the pit lane was closed.
The standout race of what has so far been a dull season took a dramatic twist when the Safety Car was deployed on lap 20 with Kevin Magnussen's Haas parked up in a dangerous position.
Hamilton had established a 11-second lead over the McLaren pair of Sainz and Lando Norris before diving into the pits too soon and was duly penalised by the stewards.
The race restarted on lap 24 but a little more than a minute later, Ferrari's Charles Leclerc crashed out at the high-speed Parabolica corner.
Leclerc's team mate Sebastian Vettel had already retired with brake failure on what was another humiliating for the Italian outfit on home turf.
A good job then that the Tifosi support were absent from this race, with the coronavirus disruption preventing fans from witnessing what proved a historic showdown.
The standing restart from the grid, which saw Hamilton attempt to overturn a 30-second deficit, set up a thrilling sprint for victory.
And Gasly held on to win a chaotic and bonkers race which even the sport's biggest critics will welcome.
