I spent last weekend in Melbourne at the Formula 1 grand prix. It's been a family ritual for a few years now. We get to the gates an hour before they open, then I join the mad dash of middle-aged dads racing to secure the best spots open to us general-admission plebs.

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Our favourite spot sits directly beneath a big corporate marquee, whose chosen-one attendees, a mixture of real estate agents, property developers and luxury car salesmen, get to rock up much later. At least we benefit from their all-day DJ and sax soloist.

Formula 1 is going through an identity crisis. The era of fuel-guzzling V8s was over long before we joined the fandom. Hybrid engines have been powering the cars for more than a decade.

But this year the pendulum has swung further in favour of the electric component of what used to be called engines but are now "power units".

Not only are the F1 cars the quietest you hear on track all day (Formula 3s still have that full-throated roar that kills conversation), the way they drive is very different.

Drivers have boost buttons that release bursts of electric power, letting them zip past rivals. One critic among the driver fraternity says it feels like driving Mario Kart.

The point of mentioning this battle for the hearts of racing - a battle between traditional internal combustion and electric power - is that it represents a neat picture of a wider contest on our roads.

Driving home from Melbourne in our station wagon we felt surrounded by the standard-bearers of either side of this tech and ideological divide.

Zipping around us were Teslas and Polestars and other types of EVs that emit strange melodies or spaceship hums to tell the world that yes, they are something special.

Also filling our rear-view mirrors before roaring past were Rams and Raptors and other monsters that make the utes our farm uncles used to drive look tiny.

As technology has helped make cars more efficient and safer, manufacturers have responded by bulking up, a phenomenon known as "autobesity".

I think this is best illustrated by looking at Marty McFly's dream truck in Back to the Future. While obnoxiously big for its time, that black 1985 Toyota HiLux is a baby compared to its 2026 successor - the HiLux "Rogue" which is more than a tonne heavier at 2300kg.

Seeing these giants pass us on the highway made me wonder if their occupants - literally up there above us like those corporates at the track - were questioning their choices as the war on Iran pushes fuel prices to new heights.

Reporter Petlee Peter spent time yesterday researching where to find the cheapest and most expensive petrol in Canberra. Incredibly the cheapest he found was $2 a litre. If you own some needy premium-drinking vehicle, you could be paying as much as $2.69.

Many will remember the shock in about 2004 when prices first hit 100 cents a litre in Canberra - a threshold that forced servos to install triple-digit signage. How soon will we see $3 at the pump?

Things look set to get significantly worse, with big oil producers, including Kuwait, Iraq and the UAE, strangled by Iranian attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

The global oil market is in crisis, adding to existing economic strife caused by the war in Ukraine and US trade shenanigans. A colleague remarked it felt like the most febrile time they'd lived through.

Which brings me back to those shiny F1 cars. Over a long time oil money has made the Middle East the centre of its economic universe. It seems almost certain that two upcoming races in Qatar and Saudi Arabia will be cancelled because of the risks of attack. In the big scheme of things, this will be a minor disruption to a money-making machine.

And, despite the protests of the motorsport purists, this fuel crisis will likely see electric power continue to win the arm wrestle on the F1 track. Surely, the same will happen on our roads.

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