There have been concerns expressed recently by a number of teams that some outfits have found clever ways to legally bring down pressures from the minimum starting limits laid down by Pirelli and the FIA.

The concern is that if they are forced to pursue similar ideas then it could lead to a dramatic escalation of spending.

As a result of the worries, the FIA has told teams to log all their tyre pressure data from this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix so that the governing body can see if teams are acting in a way that is outside of the spirit of the regulations.

If some teams are able to bring the pressures down – which is believed to be done through clever heating and then cooling of the air inside the tyres – then it could hand them a performance advantage.

Renault technical director Bob Bell said the situation is not ideal, and that teams would rather be back in a situation where they were left alone to choose the tyre pressures.

"It is disappointing that we are having to do this," he told Motorsport.com. "I am sure we would all rather be back as we were before with much more relaxed tyre pressures that were more in line with getting maximum performance from the tyres and not having to go through all this.

"It is a situation that we find ourselves in. We will make the best of it, but it is not ideal."

No cheating

Bell has played down talk that some teams may be breaking the regulations – through double-chambered rims or clever valves – but admits that heating parts of the cars can bring benefits.

"We don't have any tricks, I can honestly tell you – and if there was a good one I would love to tell you what it is," he said.

"I think there is stuff you can do around the edges, how you heat the tyres and rims, uprights – and all the thermal effects related to a corner of a car – and how all that soaks into the tyres and how that affects the pressure.

"There is stuff around the edges you can do – but I would be sort of surprised if there is a blatant brilliant idea that nobody else had thought of."

He added: "At the minute, like every team, we are trying to think of ways completely legal ways of making the situation better

"But it is clear that some teams have got a better handle on it than others. I don't think they are doing anything overtly illegal. They are just better at managing it and that is something that we need to put more effort in to.

"But we are under resourced at the minute. We don't have a factory full of people who can just be sat focusing all our energy on that problem. We've got a lot of other things to worry about as well."

Live pressures

Bell said Renault would welcome a proposal that has been put forward by McLaren for the 'starting' pressure limit to be replaced with a 'running' pressure.

For that to happen, F1 needs to come up with an effective way of live monitoring of pressures – which could be done through a tender for a standard tyre pressure sensor.

Bell said: "We would definitely support something that levels the playing field. I suspect we are probably not doing quite as good a job on it as other teams, as we have other things to worry about at the minute.

"I think that will probably help us a little bit. But this year we have probably got more important things to be focusing our energy on."

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