F1 chiefs are eyeing a move to ban tyre warmers from 2025, even though previous attempts to push through on outlawing them have all fallen through late on.
The belief is that removing the need for teams to transport the blankets, as well as run them on race weekends, will deliver significant sustainability benefits.
Other international motor racing series do operate without tyre blankets, but this has left the door open for some trickery from teams in trying to find alternative ways to get heat into their rubber.
As reported recently, the DTM was at the centre of intrigue earlier this year amid accusations of teams using sunlight to warm tyres, which was viewed as being in contravention of 'measures' that lifted tyre temperatures above ambient.
There was talk of teams leaving garage doors wide open and placing tyres in locations to take advantage of direct sunlight – or even placing tyres on grid trolleys early and leaving them outside in the pitlane.
Teams were also said to be using tyre tents made of black tarpaulin to act as a mini oven to help lift temperatures.
While Pirelli is aware of such antics taking place in other categories, head of car racing Mario Isola thinks such activities will not work in F1.
He thinks the complexities of tyre temperature management in F1, allied to the rigorous nature of rule enforcement, would act as deterrents for teams trying it out.
"If I look at F1, they are quite strict with regulations," he said. "In GT, where obviously regulations are not so strict, you can have any kind of invention to warm the tyre before going on track.
"Some of these systems like hot boxes can be quite good, but I remember in the past they were not because you would have one tyre at 100 degrees, and the last one at 40 degrees. So, it was a disaster.
"Or you can have teams warming the tyres in the sun. But if you expose the tyres to the sun, you have also other side effects, like the UV rays. They can have an impact on the compound and not all the tyres in the set are at the same temperature or in same conditions."
Source: Autosport