Aston Martin outlines conditions for considering F1 entry

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British luxury sports car manufacturer Aston Martin has indicated it could be interested in entering Formula 1 in the future - but only if the sport can find a way to control costs.

"There's always that question, would you want to enter as a team?" Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer told Motorsport.com this week.

"Our major competitor is Ferrari, so in that sense there's a rationale in being involved in some way." However he pointed out that Aston Martin didn't have anything like the sort of cash reserves to invest in F1 that Ferrari does.

"You have to bring the costs of entry down. I don't think there's anybody in the room that disagreed with that," he said.

"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."

But Palmer said that the sport was a long way off agreement on how to control spiralling costs.

Cosworth and Aston Martin sit in on engine working group meeting

"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.'

"It's a long way from being a format that everybody will buy into," he added. "And I don't think it ever will be.

"I think eventually either the FIA or Formula 1 have got to step up and say, 'This is what we've got to do.'"

The company already has strong links with Formula 1. It is a sponsor of Red Bull Racing, and is currently working with Adrian Newey developing its Cosworth-powered Valkyrie road car.

Aston Martin and Cosworth were among several new parties that sat in on a Power Unit Working Group meeting earlier this month. Also present were Magnetti Marelli and Zytek. Representatives of the Volkswagen Group had attended the previous meeting in March.

"We sit on the periphery of F1 - with the Valkyrie and with Red Bull," Palmer noted. Aston also has industry connections with gearbox makers Ricardo and engine manufacturers Ilmor.

"Obviously it makes sense to try and bring it all together," Palmer said.

"We've talked about what might be with various parties, but we haven't decided. Hopefully it will be clearer in September, and that will allow us to make a proper decision."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.