[Quote:]

Bridgestone and Microsoft have been granted exclusive contracts to be the sole suppliers, of tires and ECUs respectively, of Formula 1 beginning in 2008.

The announcement was made following this Wednesday’s meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris.

The move to a single tire supplier and standardized ECUs (Electronic Control Units, responsible for a car’s engine management) is part of the FIA’s radical cost-saving package announced earlier this year for introduction in ’08. Both Bridgestone and Microsoft will supply F1 through 2010.

To complete your application of the brakes, you will have to restart your engine. Would you like to restart now?

The real point of this exercise is to get Microsoft software in production automobiles, but mostly in entertainment subsystems. Technology developed or refined in F1 and other racing leagues often makes its way down to consumer vehicles (antilock brakes, stability control systems, variable valve timing, hydraulic clutch, …). Microsoft wants new engine control technology developed on and tied into WinCE. When the time comes to transfer that to the production world, WinCE will come along with it. Someone at F1 shook hands with someone at MS on the golf course, a suitcase of money went to F1 (Bernie Ecclestone NEVER met a dollar he didn’t like) and as a result, F1 engine technology just took a massive step backwards.