By Jo Best, 21 June 2004 13:25
NEWS With calls last week from analysts suggesting Microsoft would do well to spend some of its cash pile, it seems the Redmond giant could be about to blow $40m a year on fast cars.
According to report in German newspaper Bild am Sonntag, Chairman Gates could be signing up as the Toyota F1 team's major sponsor, covering up to 10 per cent of the company's F1 sponsorship budget
The report also added the Japanese team was hoping to bag Sony as another sponsor although that might not go down well with rival and current Toyota sponsor Panasonic.
Should they sign on the dotted line, Sony and Microsoft would join Intel in Toyota's sponsorship starting line-up and the move could see tech not tobacco become the main driving force in F1.
Microsoft declined to comment.
Comments
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1. j. Drouillard
Bill should consider starting his own car company! With the (OLD) big three they are willing to give up market share maybe it should stay in North America. With Electronic/software becoming a significant part of future cars and the power of the Internet this might be the right time for a new car company that does not have all its capitol tied up in old Technology!
2. anonymous
If General Motors Were Like Microsoft
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like the computer industry has, we would be driving twenty-five dollar cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon."
In response to Bill's comments, GM issued a press release stating (by Mr. Welch himself):
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would be driving cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason, and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought "Car95" or "CarNT." But then you have would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would only run on five percent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The airbag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither need them nor want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car buyers would have to learn how to drive all over again because none the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
Sorry I couldn't resist this. KP
3. Russ
It's a strange thing to say, but money is no guarantee of success in F1. Remember BAR's first year, with hundreds of millions to spend they said they would win in their first seasion, don't think they got a point. It took them years to get up to speed (!).
Toyota currently spend about £250 million quid a year on their F1 team, don't thing an extra £40 mill will propel them up the grid.
Bill would be better off investing in Ferrari or Williams.
4. Alun Rowe
It would be nice to see MS sponsoring someone like Minardi instead. $40million would make a BIG change for them and may help the companies image more...
5. Bernie E
Ralf Schumacher goes to Toyota! Gives a whole new meaning to 'please download the latest driver from the Microsoft website'
Paperclip say's 'I can see your trying to take a left turn, should I Accelerate, Turn right, apply brakes, all of the above'
6. Jonathan English
Oh the irony! ;o)
Anyone who saw Sunday's US-GP will know what I mean....
Da Matta (Toyota) drove a car that:
> Slowed down for no obvious reason taking out four unrelated drivers shortly after starting
> Decided to 'pit', turn it off and back on again to see if that fixed the problem
> After getting back up to a good pace slowed down again and despite repeated attempts to select something (anything!) got no response
...he eventually gave up, switched everything off and went home.
An all too familiar scenario for us MS users, are you sure they're not already involved?
I'm not a fan of F1, much preferring SuperBikes:
> The chances of real competion and regular passing exists at all times
> A small manufacturer can create world beating, ultra-performant, good looking machine
> The option to build it how you want it exists for all 'players'
Let's face it, it's faster, better and looks 'the dogs'
7. Chetan Shetty
The desicion of Bill Gate sponsoring the Toyota was expected since i have seen top officials from Toyota meeting Bill for the same .Ultimately the money had to flow out some where Now Toyota has a upper hand since they can pull Top Driver's (Ralf) in their team. Money and Technology can put Toyota on the top slaught.
8. Ammar Ahmed
Bill Gates has a strong Sixth sense.
He knows when and where to spend his hard earned money.May be next time he would be injecting his money in soccer clubs also....way to go...