Some of it has to do with controlling costs. The FIA contract out some of the more common technology (which is so tightly controlled that there's no room for re

Some of it has to do with controlling costs. The FIA contract out some of the more common technology (which is so tightly controlled that there's no room for real innovation) so that teams can spend their budgets on increasing performance. One example is that McLaren provide a common ECU to all teams[0] [0]http://www.mclarenelectronics.com/Systems/CaseStudy/Formula%20One http://www.mclarenelectronics.com/Systems/CaseStudy/Formula%...