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Fact is that these rules needed a massive reset. Unfortunately it took two factory teams being alienated from the series to get there.
The ACO might have had a reasonable sustainable class if they didn't have the ERS incentive and the "go big or go home" mentality mentioned earlier. We do have to remember that if you push for high tech and give teams a narrow time frame to get there, you're usually going to see budgets rise dramatically.
Rising budgets mean less ROI, especially if media exposure or getting what you want out of the program doesn't go up in lock step with budget increases.
Also, not just because of lawsuits against the auto industry (which I believe will get worse before they get better--VAG's dieselgate was just the tip of the iceberg as we're seeing now), but the economy has been mostly stagnant around the world for quite a few years. I don't care if the Dow Jones Industrial is pulling 20K+ points vs where it was this time last year, the world economy isn't growing, certainly not near that rate.
And in a soft economy, spending money is a hard sell, especially when questions of ROI get brought up and results are desired instantly. The ACO should consider themselves fortunate that VAG stuck it out with Porsche and especially Audi for as long as they did. They could've left at anytime, any place.
I'd hope that this is a learning experience for the ACO. However, it seems that every 10, 15, 20 years they repeat the same mistakes. So I hope that line there underscores my personal skepticism on how they'll address this problem. After all, it's largely of their making, it's up to them to find a solution.
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