Dieter Rencken sees echoes of the past in the coming battle for control over Formula 1 and its lucrative commercial rights as he takes a look ahead to the political landscape for the sport over the season to come

Strange how history is set to repeat itself 30 years after Formula 1 signed its first Concorde Agreement on the evening of 19 January 1981. Although the document – which at that stage was a bipartite agreement since the commercial rights had not yet been hived off to a separate entity - was agreed, acrimony still rumbled on for another two years.

In 1981 the season-opening race at Kyalami was canned as a world championship round (although for reasons of politicking rather than civil strife). A drivers' strike over regulations followed the next year, while in 1983 the championship-winning driver was propelled by a four-cylinder inline turbocharged engine based on production technology.

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