Virgin was clearly interested in buying the Honda team before it became Brawn GP – though how seriously is less clear. Richard Branson has since said that Formula 1 would need to make financial and environmental changes before he would want to get involved.

But I think a simple sponsorship deal would make sense. Virgin has plenty of history sponsoring motorsport – recently Virgin Media in particular – and I sense brand synergy here.

The underdog, the adventurer, fighting the established dominating market forces. Branson taking on the world in his hot air balloon, whether successfully or not; Virgin battling Sky very publicly.

Given that Brawn GP looks like it could do very well, or at least put up a bloody good fight, it should be very appealing to someone who can afford to take a bit of a punt, on the hope of a bit of positive publicity.

And the publicity can’t really fail to be positive. Either the team does well, and everyone looks good. Or the team just fights like hell, and the sponsor looks good for supporting the scrappy underdog.

The British love an underdog, so it’s surely a perfect opportunity for a British company. Like Virgin.

Plus, if Virgin does want to get involved in Formula 1 eventually, you’d think it would be a shrewd move to get a foot in the door of a team that would probably be up for sale at just about any time.