Aston Martin "can't compete" with Ferrari and Mercedes

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer is very enthusiastic about a potential Formula One project where they would be engine manufacturers, but Palmer knows that his team couldn't compete with the likes of Mercedes and Ferrari.

Talking to F1Racing, Palmer reveals how much he wants his brand to be active in the F1, but at the same time he knows his limits.

"I know that we can't just produce an F1 engine," he explained.

"We can't compete with Ferrari or Mercedes, we'll need partners.

"Even if we have partners, it's still important that the engine parts become cheaper, because otherwise it won't be possible for us to join.

"We want to be competitive if we join, otherwise we won't build an engine."

Besides racing, Palmer looks at the overall image of his company, and how a role in F1 would change the marketing strategy.

"We want to target more audiences than say Ferrari.

"With our companies like Lagonda we want to anticipate the big demand on the market.

"That's why we work with Adrian [Newey], because he can transform the F1-philosophy into a street car."