Aston Martin has boosted its staff with F1 personnel as it continues to study the possibility of entering the sport as an engine supplier beyond 2020.
The luxury car brand, which worked with Red Bull Racing on the development of its Valkyrie hypercar, will become the Milton Keynes-based outfit's main sponsor next season.
But Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer is also closely monitoring the inception of Formula 1's future engine rules and hasn't ruled out a potential power unit deal with Red Bull in the future.
"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."
According to Germany's Auto Motor und Sport, Formula 1 will present its 2021 engine regulations later this month, on October 31.
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