World Class infrastructure for a World Class Event?

No, it wasn't to be so...

This is the headline from Straits Times article

Website booted him out three times
British Airways pilot Benterman takes 10 hours to get tickets for F1's first night race

To make it a double whammy, the permanent resident found, to his horror, that the seats he had reserved were lost when he was booted out of the website.

'It was absolutely frustrating and a disgrace,'' said the exasperated 39-year-old.

'I cannot accept not getting through to the website because it crashed. There is also no customer service number to call.''

Apparently, the website was supposed to be capable of handling 20,000 transactions per hour and the actual traffic apparently was way over what was expected.

Questions:

1. Did anyone take the last F1 race's figures for a comparison and benchmarking?
   
2. Was there a big change in the way the tickets are sold?
3. Did the system incorporate proper transactions handling, queueing and all that?
   
4. Was the system properly load tested before going live?
   
5. Was someone even monitoring the system after it went live? Why was no action taken? (cf. MRT down, buses were deployed)
   
6. Was there a contingency plan in place? (obviously not)
7. Could the launch have been scheduled in phases? (online sales first, then outlet sales?)
   
8. Were corners being cut in the system hardware so someone could save a few bucks? Or was the organize scammed by vendors who gave 3rd class hardware for 1st class prices? (which is normal)

According to the news on the radio this morning, a hardware upgrade should be sufficient to solve the problem. Shame on the SI (system integrator) and/or hardware vendors who supplied the "solution".

So, we'll see... :)