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.

‘’Your car encountered an unexpected error, abort, retry, cancel’’

[quote name='SMW' date='Jun 22 2004, 12:51 PM'] ‘’Your car encountered an unexpected error, abort, retry, cancel’’ [/quote]

All is fine until going into a 150mph bend...
















































Clippy appears.


"would you like,

-me to help you write a letter
-give you advice on your CV
-leave you alone, only to re-appear as a cat in 20 seconds time

Can see this being popular...NOT

Yeah, they fit the steering wheel with

ALT, CTRL, DELETE

Buttons...

lol, and if u get really stuck u can go into the startup ontrols and remove stuff taking up 2 much power..."hmmm...BHP 62%....THAT CAN GO!"

Illegal Opperation has occurred - "All i want to do is change gear!!"

Hi everyone, this is my first post, after only stumbling across this forum by chance. I have followed Toyota's motorsport activities since the halcyon WRC days, but there have unfortunately been slimmer pickings in the F1 paddock...

Anyway, my 2 cents worth on this is that I cannot see Sony and Microsoft getting together under any circumstances as of course both are gaming console rivals, and neither would want to share space on a car. Both would fight for the title sponsor's position. You would more likely see Microsoft and Panasonic work together, but I doubt Panasonic would want to leave their position at Toyota.

But at least Microsoft have seen the latent but emerging promise that Toyota will undoubtedly fulfill. I would imagine that Microsoft would be a far more desirable sponsor than what BMW Williams has with Hewlett Packard.