Ironically, it is a remarkably similar accusation to the one the Woking-based team faced in the season which has just finished and resulted in a record fine and expulsion from the constructors' championship.

Allegations about Renault emerged in September as McLaren sought to defend themselves against their charge of having technical information belonging to Ferrari.

And motor sport's governing body the FIA have now summoned Renault team representatives to Monaco for a hearing in front of the World Motor Sport Council on December 6 to answer a charge in relation to a breach of article 151C of the International Sporting Code.

An FIA statement said that between September 2006 and October this year ``the Renault F1 team had unauthorised possession of documents and confidential information belonging to Vodafone McLaren Mercedes''.

This included, but was not limited to, ``the layout and critical dimensions of the McLaren F1 car, together with details of the McLaren fuelling system, gear assembly, oil cooling system, hydraulic control system and a novel suspension component used by the 2006 and 2007 McLaren F1 cars''.

The team were dragged into the McLaren spying affair earlier this year when it was alleged a former member of staff at the British-based marque had taken several CDs worth of data to Renault.