Category: Driving

Recently I have been wondering about the legacy that we are creating for our children.

The recent oil spill in the Gulf reminded me that the gasoline that I put in my car each week comes from ‘somewhere’, it comes from a hole in the ground that taps into a huge oil ‘pool’. This is a finite resource and that concerns me. Mostly because we tend to not consider that it is finite, precious, limited.

My car manages to travel for about 24 miles on a single (US) gallon of gas. That gallon currently costs me $3.24, I know this because I filled my car up, but generally I take little notice of the costs, it is just built into my budget. That gasoline came from a hole in the ground somewhere.

It used a tiny, tiny percentage of the total amount of oil that is available to the world, but everyone else is filling their vehicles too, at some point that insignificant fill-up is going to have a real impact on the amount left.

The energy that was stored is gone, kind of, it is transferred into heat, electrical power, forward motion and, on part of my commute at least, sound waves in the shape of the B52’s.

Did I waste that energy ?

Every year I try to predict the F1 season, this year I think I will go public with those predictions.

Lets get the big predictions out of the way up-front.

The 2010 Championship will go down to the wire between Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, these two are the only truly top flight contenders with experience of their respective teams. of the other contenders, Alonso and Schumacher are both new to their teams and will struggle at times when their expectations are not fully realized, Webber is not up to Vettel’s standards, nor is Massa and Button is really a rank outsider in a new team. So it will go down the wire to Hamilton and Vettel. Of the two it probably comes down to a combination of their experience and the team’s ability to give them the car to do the job. having flipped a coin I say Vettel will get it done, but not by very much.

2010 Champion – Sebastian Vettel

The team title is tough too, with fours top teams that all stand a decent chance, for once there are four teams in the hunt too, Red Bull, McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes. Again RedBull have the continuity advantage, Mclaren have two champions, Mercedes have Schumacher and Ferrari have Alonso and Massa. Personally I feel that Mercedes do not have the strength of team to win, sure Schumacher may win races, but Rosberg has not show enough himself to be consistently good enough in my view. The same goes for Massa. Which brings us to McLaren. Button is fast when everything is running his way, but as soon as something is wrong he stops trying and falls out of the points. Webber too is inconsistent and can be an accident magnet at time. Going out on a limb though I think that the constructors title can only have one of two possible homes, Red Bull or Ferrari. Assuming the Massa/Alonso relationship can be managed, Ferrari will do it, Massa needs to impress as it is contract time too, so…..

2010 Constructors – Ferrari