Renault Sport managing director Cyril Abiteboul has suggested introducing more standard parts to Formula 1 engines could help the FIA in enforcing the regulations.
This season, the topic of engine legality has been in the spotlight as Ferrari introduced a new battery concept which some believe has allowed them to store and deploy greater levels of electrical energy in the ERS than is permitted.
There has also been a long-running question over oil burning as fuel to improve performance, although this has largely been contained through tighter restrictions and testing.
Even so, the idea of having more standard parts in the power unit was suggested as part of an overhaul in 2021 which would make the engines cheaper, simpler and noisier and Abiteboul believes such a move would have other positives.
"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," the Renault chief told Autosport, clearly sparking a debate.
"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."
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It was such a suggestion, along with the financial impact of changing the engines, which led to quit threats from Ferrari and Mercedes, although in recent weeks the consensus has been that possibly only a few tweaks will be made to the current formula.
Even so, Abiteboul admitted that despite the FIA's efforts there have been ways discovered to circumnavigate some regulations.
"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," said the Frenchman.
"We are a very large corporation and we would never do such a thing like that, we can't afford the reputation 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."
