Ex-Ferrari staff gives Aston Martin "capability" for F1 project

Aston will become Red Bull Racing’s title sponsor in 2018 as part of an enhanced relationship that has already yielded the Valkyrie hypercar.

The British carmaker is taking a close interest in F1’s 2021 engine rules but president and CEO Andy Palmer has said costs need to be kept under control for the project to be viable.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has said his team is “absolutely open” to running an Aston Martin engine if it decides to pursue the project.

“I’m sure we have the technical capability,” Palmer told Motorsport.com. “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 roadside. So I have an interesting mixture now of technical capabilities.”

Aston has experience of partnering other brands interested in building an independent F1 engine, as it had previously worked Cosworth and Ricardo.

Palmer has said both options are open as to whether Aston would produce an F1 engine alone or with a partner company.

Formula 1’s governing body the FIA and commercial rights holder Formula One Management were due to meet on Friday to talk about various proposals made by current prospective engine suppliers.

This was ahead of the next Strategy Group meeting, where the subject will be discussed, that is set to take place on 7 November.