In the aftermath of Team New Zealand's embarrassing choke in its quest to bring the America's Cup back to these shores, talk rapidly turned to the team's future. And the future, according to Otago Daily Times sub-editor and Formula One fan Andrew Morrison, is not on the water. It's on the track.
Even before this year's epic fail against Oracle, following defeats to Alinghi in 2003 and 2007, Auckland Mayor Len Brown told supporters Team NZ was one of this country's top three sporting brands.
The others, in his eyes, are the All Blacks and - wait for it - McLaren (despite the latter's main link with New Zealand dying in 1970, with the demise of founder Bruce McLaren).
Shortly after the unfortunate events on San Francisco Bay, when speculation started in earnest over Team NZ's future, business commentator Rod Oram, speaking in his regular slot on Radio New Zealand's Nine to Noon show, opined there was only one other sport which could make use of the skills employed by Team NZ: Formula One motor racing.
And just last month, in her interview with Dean Barker, Radio NZ's Lynn Freeman enthused that watching the AC72 catamarans was like ''watching a grand prix on water''.
This was too much of coincidence, I thought: great minds think alike, after all. Suddenly, my dream of reincarnating Emirates Team NZ as an F1 team didn't seem such a silly idea.
Pie-in-the-sky, too expensive, too ambitious, I hear you say. Begone, nay-sayers; it's not as crazy as it sounds ... New Zealand has a proud history of involvement in Formula One.
The pioneering exploits of the aforementioned Bruce McLaren, who, by winning the 1959 US Grand Prix, became the first Kiwi to win a race and went on to found the team which has so far won 12 drivers' titles and eight constructors' titles, put us on the F1 map.
Denny Hulme outdid his former mentor by winning the 1967 world championship (even though he was driving for an Australian, Jack Brabham).
And Chris Amon spent 13 long years - three of them with Ferrari - earning the reputation as ''the greatest driver never to win a race''
(Enzo Ferrari's remark that Amon was the ''best test driver I ever had'' was scant consolation).
McLaren, Hulme and Amon drove in the ''golden age'' for Kiwis in F1, from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, an era which prompted the great Stirling Moss to observe that ''in terms of its population, New Zealand's contribution to the top echelons of motorsport far outweighs that of any other country''.
Those were the days. But the fact we haven't had a driver in F1 since Mike Thackwell in 1984 shouldn't put us off.
In fact, there are indications another golden age could be just over the horizon.
Mitch Evans finished 14th in his debut GP2 season after having won the GP3 category last year, and is being talked up by his manager - none other than recently-retired Aussie Red Bull driver Mark Webber. Brendon Hartley was Red Bull reserve driver in 2009-10.
Jonny Reid and Matt Halliday blazed a trail in the now-defunct A1GP series, billed as the ''world cup of motorsport'', by twice finishing second overall in a series which featured many drivers who are now racing in Formula One.
And Scott Dixon and Hayden Paddon have proved Kiwis can break into top flight motorsport - albeit in Indy car and rallying, respectively.
It's not just in the driving ranks where Kiwis have excelled. Kiwis have also played a big part behind the scenes as mechanics, truck drivers, hospitality staff and pit crew over the years.
So we have the human resources. What about the technical and financial resources? That's where the experience of Team NZ in the America's Cup comes in.
In terms of technical nous, there are - and I apologise for slipping into corporate-speak here - ''synergies'' between racing yacht and racing car design.
Both entail designing and building machines to a specified set of regulations (the ''formula'' in Formula One and the Deed of Gift in the America's Cup); and both have the same objective: to complete a course in the shortest time possible.
So similar are the ends they have used many of the same means to them - aerodynamic efficiency; extensive use of carbon fibre to provide strength and lightness; and computing power to provide an analytical edge.
Team NZ has been at the forefront of such technologies during the 20 years of its existence, and there is no reason why it shouldn't continue to be so in its new role.
But it will take money. Lots of money. A prohibitively large amount of money, some might say. But not I!
OK, Formula One is notoriously expensive, with the top teams having budgets rumoured to be around $US400 million ($NZ480 million) a season.
(I say ''rumoured'' because team budgets - in fact, budgets of any kind in F1 - are a tightly guarded secret).
However, the budgets of smaller teams are considerably lower. That of the smallest of the small - Marussia - was believed to be about $US65 million ($NZ78 million) last year. And guess what? That is actually less than the roughly $100 million Team NZ spent on the 2013 America's Cup challenge.
There is also the small matter of the 25 million ($NZ49 million) entry fee payable by new teams to the sport's governing body, the FIA. This fee is refunded through the season and, I propose, could form the Government's contribution, at least in Team NZ's first season.
And why wouldn't the Government contribute? For only slightly more money than it gave the America's Cup campaign, the main event of which lasted only a few months (let's face it, the lead-up regattas barely registered with anyone but the most obsessive yachting fan), ''New Zealand Inc'' would gain vastly greater exposure in many more potential markets, which, we are told, is what it's all about.
Next year's Formula One calendar consists of 19 races in 19 different countries on every continent except the Antarctic (there would be one there, too, if someone would pay F1 commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone enough money).
These include such key markets for New Zealand products as Australia, the Middle East, Malaysia, China and the United States.
As well as the roughly 2 million people who will watch these races live, more than half a billion will watch them on television, making it a sponsor's dream.
What better way for our own global brand, Fonterra, to join the corporate big league? I can see it now: our car screaming around a famous Grand Prix circuit in the black and white livery of ...
a Holstein Friesian dairy cow! Now that would get us attention.
Other sponsors, of course, would be welcome, including existing ones: what a great opportunity for Emirates to go head-to-head with its competing Middle Eastern airline (and Ferrari sponsor), Etihad.
I'm sure Nestle wouldn't mind associating the Nespresso band with the high-octane world of F1. And as for Toyota, well ...
need I say more? Throw in an engine (V6, turbocharged with hybrid electric technology - you know, a bit like the ones you build already) and we'll let you stick a logo on the car for nothing!
If it was still a few (million) dollars short, there are more than a few wealthy private individuals whose resources could be tapped.
Kim Dotcom, for example, is a well-known motorsport fan and was one of the first to pledge his financial support for another America's Cup challenge. Don't waste your money, Kim!
And then there's the general public, which has grown used to being called upon to back Team NZ in its cup endeavours. But how many of us have actually seen a contemporary America's Cup yacht?
Think of how much easier it would be for Team NZ to drum up public support if it toured the country with a 4.5m-long, 600kg car instead of a 26m-long, 6 tonne boat - which, for obvious reasons, can only visit main coastal towns.
Imagine watching a Formula One car going for a drag down the main street of Gore, or doing donuts in the Octagon, or putting in some hot laps at Highlands Motorsport Park.
Who wouldn't pay to see that?So there we have it: a case for contesting the Formula One World Championship as compelling as has ever been made for competing in the America's Cup.
If we are serious about putting New Zealand on the global stage, we should just do it.
With our can-do attitude and renowned Kiwi ingenuity, we could really make the world sit up and notice.
