Keiran,
I hear you. I ran a lot of 2005 spec cars just fine (hardly default don't you think?). Of course not all the hardware is up to date.
GP4 is the only game I play. A new level of games, allright. I do understand that. I'm not the only one who's have these problems, am I? I enjoy the pictures in the picture threat, realizing I cannot play at that level, but I like to race time to time. I enjoyed last years cars, but this "new level" does mean that every one of us has to buy the nearly latest specs, every year... think about that, not everybody can effort that, not nowadays anyway.
Another thought: why is EA not matching GP4 for the last 3 or 4 years? Because they can't? I doubt that very much, the reason might be found in the "old" systems out there (installed base). And no I will not use EA's F1 game, enough reasons not to