Aston, Martin is seriously considering an entry into Formula 1, should an engine cost cap be introduced from 2021 onwards.
The British manufacturer attended the recent 2021 engine rules discussions, in order to help weigh up if a Formula 1 venture was viable.
Aston is currently involved in the sport, as a sponsor for Red Bull Racing and they are working with Adrian Newey on the Valkyrie road car project.
“We sit on the periphery of F1, with the Valkyrie, and with Red Bull,” Aston CEO Andy Palmer told Autosport.
“There’s always that question, would you want to enter as a team?
“Our major competitor is Ferrari, so in that sense, there’s a rationale in being involved in some way.
“But for a company that’s only just moved to making a profit we don’t have the 350-400 million a year that you have to spend on F1.
“If – and it really is the big if – there is a cap put on the number of people or the amount of money that you can spend on developing a new engine, and it’s at a reasonable level, we have a good reason to study it.
“At the moment there are lots of opinions, and it’s still morphing into whatever the final idea will be.”
Palmer says he’s pleased with the progress of the talks but is clear of the stumbling blocks.
“Clearly everybody accepts that you need more theatre in F1, you need more noise, you don’t want to restrict too much of the performance, but you have to bring the costs of entry down,” he added.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the room that disagreed with that.
“But the debate is, ‘How?’ The FIA will say, ‘Why don’t you remove this?,’ and half the crowd will say, ‘No you can’t do that.'”
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