The major difference between a Formula One fan and a normal person is sweet innocence.
Those of us who follow this sport have become hardened over the years, burned too often to greet any pronouncement without some degree of cynicism. If so-and-so says x, they must mean y. Unless it's a double-bluff and really they were saying z. You know it, I know it, we all know it.
But to the vast majority of our fellow humans, F1's wheelings and dealings merit absolutely no consideration whatsoever. If they do think of F1, because the sport has popped up towards the front of the newspaper, they take the news at face value, presuming that those in charge mean what they say and say what they mean. Such sweet innocence...
Sadly, this impulse to take things as read is one that has negative consequences on the sport as a whole because it can - and does - give entirely the wrong impression.
Last week's announcement that Iran had plans to build an F1 circuit received little attention in the mainstream media, but gained enough traction that my grand prix-loathing friends picked up on the story, forwarding me details of the Iranian media visa application process and links to hotels on Qeshm Island alongside snarky comments about the ethics of Formula One and wishing me luck at the surely soon-to-be-announced grands prix of Syria, South Sudan, and a host of other countries the FCO advises against travelling to.
But what they - and Iranian vice president and head of cultural heritage, handicrafts, and tourism organisation Masoud Soltanifar - appear to have missed is that Formula One is no Field of Dreams. If you build it, there's no guarantee we will come. Just ask Imola, which was reissued with an FIA Grade 1 circuit license a few years ago, enabling the classic track to hold F1 grands prix once again. Sadly, the odds of F1 returning to Imola are infinitesimal.
But Imola is far from alone. On the most recent list of FIA-licensed circuits - last updated in February 2015 - there are around a dozen former and prospective Grade 1 venues that are unlikely to play host to a future F1 grand prix. Familiar tracks like Estoril, Fuji Speedway, Imola, Indianapolis, Istanbul Park, Korea, Magny-Cours, New Delhi, and Paul Ricard are listed, as are Thailand's Buriram, the Moscow Raceway, Mugello, and Qatar's Losail.
That's 13 circuits - many of which have history in the sport (and others, like Imola and Mugello, real historical significance) - theoretically ready to host a grand prix, yet without a race to call their own. When the cost of building a racetrack - or of improving an existing facility to Grade 1 standard - is taken into account, that list of 13 venues represents hundreds of millions in wasted money for those countries who had hoped to lure and keep Formula One.
If the Iranian government wishes to build an F1-spec race track, there is absolutely nothing to stop it doing so. The prospective site of Qeshm Island could be a spectacular setting for any televised sport - it is the largest island in the Persian Gulf, and it is comprised of forests, deserts, mountains, and beaches, plus the odd salt cave, any of which would make an excellent TV backdrop.
But it is also an island populated largely by fishermen, and surrounded by a variety of reefs, coral formations, and protected forms of wildlife. The biodiversity of Qeshm makes it a key site for the nascent ecotourism industry in the Gulf, and some religious scholars see it as a likely site for the Garden of Eden. It is not a place that is crying out for motorsport or large-scale development of any sort.
That being said, the island is already home to an underground military facility thought to have been built to house submarines, and building a race track would be no more damaging to the local environment than constructing a large-scale high-tech bunker.
What the Iranian government must consider, however, is that a circuit alone is not enough to bring F1 to you. In addition to the race-hosting fees there must also be assurances given regarding the timely progress of team freight both in and out of the country, access to the island itself (a bridge connecting Qeshm to the mainland is planned), ease of securing visas...
Iran may be home to the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves, but it does not figure on rich lists as defined by GDP per capita. According to the 2013 World Bank figures, the Islamic Republic has a GDP per capita of $4,763.30 compared with $24,689.10 for Bahrain, $43,048.90 for the United Arab Emirates, and $93,714.10 for Qatar, to compare Iran's finances with its fellow GP hosts - current and aspiring - in the Gulf region.
Of all the countries on the 2015 F1 calendar, only China comes close to Iran's GDP, clocking in at $6,807.40, although the Asian economic giant's figures are skewed by its massive population.
Fans know that F1 has nothing to gain from a race in Iran. The region is already heaving with hosts both potential and actual, and through their national airlines Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar can all guarantee international connections and familiar ease of passage for the F1 circus and its goods that Iran cannot offer at present. There is no political advantage, either on the global stage or in the corridors of F1 power. And if it comes to a financial arms race for the next Middle Eastern Grand Prix? Qatar has the money to win any hosting fee arms race it chooses to enter, and the influence to sway the appropriate yays or nays in the paddock.
The wider world, however, sees 'Iran to build F1 track' and thinks the sport has found its spiritual home at last.