I have been a fan of Billy Connolly, the comedian from Glascow in Scotland, for many years. There's one of his stories that I particularly like the start of: "Have you ever thought about being a pervert?"

Billy points out that he is not asking if you wake up in the morning, look into the mirror and say, "I think I'll be a pervert today. Nip out and get my #$^%@ pierced."

No, no, no. The question should be phrased: "Have you ever thought WHAT IT'S LIKE TO BE a pervert?" After that, the story goes into some gory and gruesome details about life as a pervert. All in broad Glaswegian dialect and with a distinctly Glaswegian sense of humour about it all.

Billy mentions the ordinary perversions (are there such things as "ordinary" perversions?), before going on to some of the more odd ones. All of which is rather a long way to lead into one perversion that Billy doesn't mention: "Have you ever thought about being the boss of a Formula One team?"

Why on earth would you or I want to start up a Formula One team? Maybe you don't. But some people do. Why? For the glory? The honour? The pride? Because it's there? Or, for the money?

Billy raises the question of how you get started into perversion. So we should ask how these team owners get started in their perversion.

Some buy their way in, or are put into the job. Flavio Briatore of Benetton is a good example of this. But most of the team owners seem to have worked their way up through the ranks: Ron Dennis of McLaren; Frank Williams; Ken Tyrrell; Jackie Oliver of Arrows; Eddie Jordan; Giorgio Minardi; Jean Todt of Ferrari; and Peter Sauber.

Look through the ranks of team bosses and I think you'll find that a lot of them started off in some way in lower formulae. Dennis started as a mechanic with Cooper in the 1960s, before setting up an F2 team in the early 1970s. Williams also started as a mechanic, but in Formula Junior, in the early 1960s, and started his own team in the late 1960s after racing briefly. Oliver and Jordan also had spells as drivers.

Gradually, they worked up through the ranks, gaining experience and getting results. Finally, they all got to the pinnacle, F1. The progression from one formula to another, higher, seems fairly logical.

If you're competitive, once you're the top of one pile, you look for the next, bigger, pile to climb. It's fine being at the top, but if you're always there, life can get a bit boring, so you are always moving up. So, we can say, simply, that these guys are team bosses because their competitive, but that's only part of it.

And, as they moved up, the sport got more and more competitive ... and more and more expensive. If they want to move on, they have to be competitive, which means more money. Of course, these people don't have bottom-less pockets, so they have to find someone who is willing to put up the money. In their turn, they want something in return, so that's where sponsorship comes in.

But this still leaves the question of "why"? What do the team bosses get out of being a team boss, the owner?

You hear frequently that F1 isn't sport, it's a business, and that's the tag to the whole thing. For sure, there's a measure of glory, honour, competitiveness and pride in being the best. But it's the money that is the driving force.

Each team IS a business. They have stock-holders, just like any other company. And those stock-holders expect a return on their investment. Some, like sponsors, get their return by associating themselves with a team, but they have to invest heavily.

So, off the boss goes, out into the "real" world, to persuade people to give him some money. In return, they get to have their names in various places on the car - the more money, the bigger and better the position on the car. If a team is really lucky, they'll get a BIG sponsor, who will effectively demand that they get the whole car - McLaren and Rothmans are prime examples of this - and give the team HUGE sums of money for that privilege.

But do the teams stop there? They've got a lot of money to do their business, and a car that is a moving billboard. Do the teams then say to themselves, "No, we've got enough money for the season, we don't need anymore"?

I think not!

Look at McLaren. Instantly recognisable as the "Marlboro" cars in F1. On top of that, they have the Mercedes signs (supplying free engines); the Mobil signs (supplying free petrol and oils); Goodyear (free tyres); and so on.

How about this for a theory? They get as many dollars they can from all their sponsors (or, as McLaren likes to call them, "partners"). At the end of the season, they do all their accounts like any other business, and they find they have actually got money left over.

Do they return it to their sponsors? Again, I think not! That's their profit, just like any other business.

You hear people saying that F1 isn't entertainment nor motor racing, it's big business. And you hear successful team bosses saying they - the team - are in the business of winning. Both groups are right. And we all know the loop that's about to come.

To be successful, they need lots of money. To get lots of money, they need big sponsors. To get big sponsors, they have to be successful. The more success they have, the more money they get, so that they are even more successful, and get more money ... and so on.

Like any other business, they have to make a profit (however you define it), to persuade their investors (sponsors) to keep on putting money into the business.

So why do the bosses do it? They could go and run a factory and get a profit for their shareholders that way. So perhaps, after all, it isn't just the money. Maybe, there is a thrill in being involved in F1. And maybe that's what drives (bad pun, sorry!) these people to be team bosses.

But that's just me.