The Aston Martin name will be a part of the championship from 2018 as title sponsor for Red Bull Racing, but the manufacturer remains interested in joining providing the costs are justifiable.
Andy Palmer, the President and CEO of Aston Martin, said the costs will be a big part of their decision to join Formula 1, but the acquirement of former Scuderia Ferrari engineers with experience means provisions are in place to develop an engine should the decision be a positive one.
“I’m sure we have the technical capability,” said Palmer to Autosport. “Some of the people I have recently recruited, coming in from Ferrari, means I have the brainpower to be able to develop a Formula 1 engine.
“The question will be whether the cap on the expense of doing that is affordable to a company like Aston. That’s the big difference between a small company like Aston and the big boys like Renault or Mercedes-Benz.
“The people I have recruited have associations with the F1 side in the past and also the road side. So I have an interesting mixture now of technical capabilities.”