Bridgestone, Microsoft Get Exclusive F1 Contracts

**Cajun** · 6th July 2006, 16:15

'Bridgestone, Microsoft Get Exclusive F1 Contracts

Bridgestone's monopoly should effectively happen already in '07, as Michelin is set to pull out of F1 by this season's end. (LAT Photo)

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.

In the specific case of the Japanese tire company, its monopoly will go in effect already next year, as rivals Michelin are set to pull out of the sport by this season's end.

In addition, the WMSC also announced that due to a significant increase in cornering speeds in F1 this season, the sport's Technical Working Group will be consulted regarding possible measures to slow the cars down.'

Wonder if they have to put up with blue screens from microsoft, like rest of world as to.

Imanage that, flying down at 200mph and your ecu crashes. big OOOPS

**RantyDave** · 6th July 2006, 16:31

Oh my god. I hope Microsoft do the sensible thing and just badge someone else's working ECU.

Jesus, Windows CE running an F1 engine. The mind boggles. The mind goes "BANG!" down the back straight of Suzuka.

Dave

**Skunk** · 6th July 2006, 16:32

Originally Posted by Cajun

Imanage that, flying down at 200mph and your ecu crashes. big OOOPS

Haha... random stoppages for no apparent reason.

Hang on. They do that already.

**Cajun** · 6th July 2006, 16:39

yeah there are some funny ass comments, on slashdot.org .

where i grabed the story from

**Mental Trousers** · 6th July 2006, 16:45

Is the FIA trying to destroy F1 or something?? Can't be a good thing having that fucking paper clip bugging you just before the engine stops at 250+kph

**limbimtimwim** · 6th July 2006, 19:13

My understanding was you needed a bona-fide Real Time Operating System to run an ECU properly. WinCE, AFAIK, is not. Or no OS at all. Surely it would take years of development to make an ECU that could manage an F1 car well.

Still, they could just buy a good ECU manufacturer. How in the hell did MS manage to get this deal? There must be people who know people on the board of stupid decisions. They are probably manager types who think 'a computer is just a computer... right?'.

I would love to see Microsoft failing so publicly. Can you see teams throwing fits and cursing the name of MS is the press conferences after they mess up a race for them? Fantastic.

**vtec** · 7th July 2006, 00:20

Microsoft have enough money, they can do what they want. If they wanted to they could make operating systems that don't crash, but they aren't driven by customer satisfaction. They are driven by deadlines and money. However, if they fuck this up, there will be severe repercussions on Microsoft which will definitely not make it worth their while (and their money) being the sole supplier of ECU's. I reckon it's a 99% chance that they will not have an ECU failure for the whole season, short of the car catching on fire and burning the ecu into oblivion.

In fact I think it's a lot simpler to make an automotive ecu than it is to make a conventional PC. But you have to start from scratch.

But I have to agree, as soon as I heard Microsoft were becoming the main supplier of ECU's I immediately thought of their software designing track record. Plus, they are phenominally uncreative. They get all their new ideas and products by absorbing or copying smaller companies.

**sAsLEX** · 7th July 2006, 08:59

Monota is fuming after failing to finish the monaco GP after leading the whole race after getting a blue screen of death on the penultimate lap.

**sAsLEX** · 7th July 2006, 09:00

Originally Posted by limbimtimwim

My understanding was you needed a bona-fide Real Time Operating System to run an ECU properly. WinCE, AFAIK, is not. Or no OS at all. Surely it would take years of development to make an ECU that could manage an F1 car well.

One of the guys at uni built one up last year that could handle the engine management side of things in a f1 car.

**Motu** · 7th July 2006, 13:00

Typical F1 intrige.....the computer hardware and code will be developed by MES.

MES is McLaren Electronic Systems.....

That should balance out the Bridgestone tyres which have always been a Ferrari tyre.That's why all the teams switched to Michelin when they came on board,Bridgestone were working too closely with Ferrari.....and now after all these years of dedicated Ferrari tyres you can guess what all their data is based around.

**Finn** · 7th July 2006, 13:15

They'll have to combine Cntl - Alt - Del into one button and turn off the auto update feature. You wouldn't want to make that sort of decision while cornering at 280.

**sAsLEX** · 7th July 2006, 13:21

Originally Posted by Finn

They'll have to combine Cntl - Alt - Del into one button and turn off the auto update feature. You wouldn't want to make that sort of decisions while cornering at 280.

Better add an "any" key while there at it, dont know how smart some of these drivers are!

**Motu** · 7th July 2006, 13:39

See my above post - Microsoft have nothing to do with the F1 computer,it's just their name being used - hardware and code is being developed by MES.

**Finn** · 7th July 2006, 13:41

It was a joke Motu. You know, humour? Funny ha, ha? Boom, boom? Ah forget it.

**cowpoos** · 7th July 2006, 13:49

Originally Posted by Finn

They'll have to combine Cntl - Alt - Del into one button and turn off the auto update feature. You wouldn't want to make that sort of decision while cornering at 280.

wonder if they will release some new screen savers for use in F1?