The comparison in the article is pretty odd, but it's still amazing to see how much effort goes into engineering F1 cars. I wonder what they could produce if they were allowed to run free and didn't have to deal with F1 regulations.
By now they would have removed the driver, and that would take most of the $$ out of F1 ;)
The Williams 1993 car was in many ways the high point of tech for F1. Since then, I think FIA have been trying to balance the rules for (1) safety (2) balancing the role of the constructor and the driver, and ensuring that driver skill was a major part of the equation.
The Williams car with active suspensions was the last technical improvement that was not a rules loophole up to maybe the Mercedes f-duct and wing stalling. F1 has become a spec formula with the only goal to keep lap times more or less constant and some common ground with production cars (the current hybrids, Le Mans too.)