You can build in the floodplain safely if you raise the base flood elevation of the home site. It's just takes bringing in a shitton of dirt. Your house may become an island during floods, but it will be untouched.
People who have been conned don't like to admit they've been conned. They will jump through all kinds of mental hoops to avoid coming to terms with it. They'll have forgotten about this in a few weeks.
I'm sure he did, but Checo was still able to drive it very well for the first while. It wasn't until last season where it got to the point that he couldn't handle it anymore.
I think Newey's original design for this rule set was really great, but maybe they were close to the limit of how much faster it could be made to go especially when he wasn't the one working on it anymore. As a result they got desperate and started tailoring it even more to Max's ability because it was the only way to get any more speed out of it. It got undriveable for everyone else as a result because they aren't an all-time talent.
Look how bad Mercedes initially fucked up on the current regs. They went from 7 in a row to having a car that almost rattled Hamilton's teeth out of his head when the rules changed. They had to start over from scratch after their initial design was so bad. Red Bull was historically dominant just 2 years ago and now they have the one of the slowest cars in the field. The same thing is probably going to happen to McLaren when other teams start hiring talent away from them. There's no safe way to pick ahead of the changes. Either you pick a good team and commit for the long haul or you wait a year and go where they have it figured out.
You're basically guessing when it comes to picking who will figure out the new regs first. History says 1 team is going to do it significantly better than the rest of the field and everyone else will be playing catch up for at least a year or 2. A 1 year deal is probably Max's best option if he doesn't want to gamble on ending up in a bad car.
I would put George and LeClerc at about the same level. They are both capable of good performances particularly in qualifying, but also like to shit the bed at less than ideal moments.