Renault hoping for standardised parts to avoid cheating claims

Renault boss Cyril Abiteboul has thrown his support behind the prospect of more standardised parts in Formula One. He claims that the complexities of parts in F1 make it almost impossible for the FIA to police all of the teams perfectly 100% of the time.

Claims that Ferrari has cheated in the new developments of their power unit from Mercedes and Red Bull led to nought as the FIA passed the Scuderia's new parts after extensive investigations.

Abiteboul is hopeful that if more parts are standard in the sport, claims of cheating would be less frequent and make the FIA's job easier.

“I think that, frankly, if we wanted to cheat on the current engine, we would know how to do it, and that’s an issue,” Abiteboul told Motorsport.com.

“We are a very large corporation and we would never do such a thing like that, we can’t afford the reputational risk.

“I’m not saying that anyone is cheating, but I think it’d be good to get rid of all the speculation, by doing some local and targeted standardisation, and we’ve put forward some proposals in relation to that.”

Abiteboul also suggested that talks about the topic should be taking place now as Liberty Media work to form the future regulations for the 2021 season and beyond.

“I don’t want to create a debate here, but I think we need to think how we can help the FIA, regarding the enforceability of the regulations.

“I really believe that the complexity of the engine is such that I would not want to have myself to police it. So, I think we need to figure that out.

“I really believe that some elements of standardisation are not just useful but absolutely necessary if we want to retain some confidence between all the participants.”