You guys REALLY have to let that Pook statement go!
As for cutting edge, I think it depends. It's like if you tried to design the best darn paper evelope ever made without chaning the molecular structure of the paper. Is that more sophisticated than the 20+ year old space shuttle? (obviously I'm making a ridiculous comparison) They are not trying to develop the engine at all. The current engine is derived from a varient that reved into the 16k range with out the use of pneumatic valves and at one point produced in excess of 1000hp (so said Dario who was Honda's R&D driver). They took that engine, fitted a different turbo and probably camshaft so that power would be produced at a much lower operating range.
It might seem like the setups should be perfected by now, but clearly they are not. Even the top teams will have times where they do not perform, etc.
The technical competition is interesting, but do you not think Motegi would have been more interesting if Honda hadn't had a large power advantage? If this was the case the Ganassi cars probably would have won.
I never claimed CART was more sophisticated, I simply retorted. As for the Dario quote, I'm going to need some confirmation on that one and perhaps some context. Especially given rather surprising and negative comments he made at the Homestead test. As for context eg. One could argue a Nascar is harder to drive than an IRL or CART car because it's a boat.