Contractors usually don't write the contracts, it's usually up to the customer to do that and the contractor to agree to it and amend as necessary. After all it's the customer's requirements, not the contractors that are trying to be met.

I guess you've never seen the Tifosi then? That's why Ferrari can whine like a little bitch all the time. Actually there was a lot of "Meh" during Schumacher's prime years and you'll find that all drivers have big followings with the exception of maybe a few of the back marker teams. What draws the crowds is the excitement of the racing and F1 has become boring as shit. I hate to say that as a fan, but it has and pushing cost containment and eco friendly features all means more boring so I'll probably go to Monza or Spa next year. I would like to see the Monaco GP once but then I'll just DVR the rest of it and skip to the good shit.

or maybe Oracle is more shrewd at business than the State of Oregon? I think that's the reality here.

230 MPH? Great but The FIA will outlaw it. It'll be too fast. That's why you see the latest generation of Tilke designed tracks all having short straights and lots of curves. That's also why you see fans wanting more of the old style tracks like Spa, Monza, Imola and Ricard because they were designed for speed, not FIA bureaucrats.

Formula E extreme? That's a stretch. Again, get old people on mobility scooters and put them on a 1/4 mile oval. The racing would be much more exciting.

Yes it has to make good financial and business sense if a company is going to be in any racing series. If you look one key reason BMW left.

It was because they felt F1 wasn't relevant to their business and wasn't green enough. Okay, I'll agree to that but motor racing isn't about green, it never should be about green and being eco-friendly. It's racing FFS! If you come in it looking for butterflies and rainbows you're in the wrong sport.

And the FIA for F1 says storage is electric, Williams helped design the flywheel technology you mention and has quite a few patents around it however they can't use it in F1 and they're an F1 team. Again, teams can't innovate even on ERS design, it's mandated that it be this way because some bureaucrats thought it best.

Agreed, they've done a great job but so have other teams but the rules like homologation for power units means that technology freezes for six years. Sure, gear ratios (twice a year) and fuel maps can be changed but if you did it right to begin with, that's a huge advantage but now that leaves everybody struggling because they can't innovate to compete. The only other area is Aero within a defined set of parameters, again, defined by the FIA and with cost reduction initiatives simulator time, wind tunnel time is all governed which means your racing to a budget, not producing the best thing you can. No team has infinite resources but it would be nice to see differences in the cars and different schemes, like maybe flywheel recovery in ERS but that's a pipe dream. What this leads to is conservative designs instead of leading designs for the sake of reliability vs ultimate performance. That makes it like a deranged pinewood derby.

with mandated technology restrictions imposed by the FIA how do you propose that real innovation will occur? If a team comes up with a radical new battery that allows them to go the race distance without stopping the FIA won't allow it because it will be unfair to the other teams, especially if they're French. That's what you have in F1, as soon as an advantage is learned, it's wiped out by more regulations creating a glorified pinewood derby.

That's the incongruity of the situation and why the FIA has imposed ridiculous rules on how much supercomputing time can be used etc. to attempt at balancing the competition. What this has led to is teams like RBR where they'll go out, find some innovation, like Carbon Fiber layout software and lock the vendor into only supplying that technology to them. This gave RBR a distinct advantage in front wing design that allowed strength but also flexibility to get skirt some of the rules. If you can't build it, buy it right? The FIA then changed the rules on Aero to compensate for that teams initiative. Power Units require homolgolation and that means unless it's in the name of improved reliability/durability you can't change them once homologated. This means if you get it right to begin with, you'll have a huge advantage and the other teams won't be able to react. Again, an imbalance. The only way I'd see of constraining costs would be to say teams can have no more than X people and X budget, total; do with it what you will. That's like a salary cap, not what the FIA has created in F1.

Oh come on I know your kidding there but sometimes the customer insists on vague specs. It's also mostly about the lowest cost bidder so they probably had a small team in the US, glad-handers and an offshore team doing the actual work. Obviously Oregon isn't happy about it and it's probably clear that Oracle feels they did a great job.

It's a contract dispute as alleged by Oregon: fraud and poor performance. A court trial in this case would be warranted if the parties couldn't work it out amicably. Having dealt with State and Federal contracts I tell you that some of the deliverables stated in contracts leave huge holes. The vendors more often than not can't change them and so eventually you get to a point where either the customer is happy or they withhold payment or sue you because their nebulous requirements weren't met.

I was thinking chisel and stone tablets. Much more durable than paper. Less chance for data loss except if you drop them.

I agree with half of that. The other half is DBAs who configure it to run like shit so they're paid to babysit it.

With booze and gambling and hookers?

Probably jaded because too many series getting driven into the ground. With the F1 teams being worried, that should say enough about the fact that F1 is going in the wrong direction. IndyCar is struggling because of trying to focus on low dollar racing, creating an incredibly boring series. F1 will head there as well. I'll still watch F1, probably attend the USGP next year if there is one too. The WEC series is turning around and LeMans is one race I have yet to attend, so maybe I'll focus over there instead of watching Ecclestone and his cronies drive F1 into the ground.

LOL, that made me laugh but it's true. Not to mention all the planes and helicopters for the drivers/spectators along with all the air cargo transport needed to ferry it around the planet.