By 1983, the dispute between FISA and FOCA had been resolved and although FOCA emerged with the stronger hand, the teams had seen the writing on the wall.

The resulting culture clash was considerable ; local scrutineers, who had been applying the Group A regulations as written, repeatedly disagreed with European teams ( notably that of Rudi Eggenberger ) and the global organising body ( FISA, the ancestor of the FIA ) that were considerably more liberal with their interpretations.

The controversy threatened to spill over into the French Grand Prix as well as the FISA aligned teams, primarily Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo, had boycotted the Spanish race which later saw its results removed from championship considerations.

The race was marked by a boycott of many teams as part of a political war, unrelated to the event itself, involving the two dominant forces within the sport, the FISA and the FOCA, which caused the field for this race to be only 14 cars.

The FISA had introduced new fuel economy rules aimed at reducing speeds, ruling that cars must have a 220 litre fuel tank, with re-fueling now banned ( the tank had to be 220L but teams were free to try and squeeze more in if they could, which some tried with methods such as freezing the fuel inside the tank ).

FOCA consisted of the major British teams, while the manufacturer teams ( Renault, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo and Talbot-Ligier ), together with Italian team Osella and Toleman were aligned with FISA.

FISA clashed repeatedly with the Formula One Constructors Association ( FOCA ), which represented the teams ' interests.

Unlike the JSPC series, FISA had begun to integrate regulations for a new engine formula in the World Championship which required all teams to use 3500 cc engines by 1992.

The teams ( excepting Ferrari and the other major manufacturers-Renault and Alfa Romeo in particular ) were of the opinion that their rights and ability to compete against the larger and better funded teams were being negatively affected by a perceived bias on the part of the controlling organisation ( FISA ) toward the major manufacturers.

After a lengthy debate between the teams, the drivers, FOCA and FISA, the race went ahead at the insistence of King Juan Carlos without FISA's sanctioning or the support of the factory teams.

A grudging settlement was reached thereafter which allowed the FOCA teams to return to the " FISA " world championship in time for the first race in March.

In theory, all FOCA teams were supposed to boycott the Grand Prix as a sign of solidarity and complaint at the handling of the regulations and financial compensation ( and, it must be said, extreme opposition to the accession of Balestre to the position of FISA president-both Colin Chapman of Lotus and Frank Williams of Williams stated clearly that they would not continue in Formula One with Balestre as its governor ).

This meant another Grand Prix ( the United States Grand Prix West ) was run before the appeals were heard, and Ferrari ( who was aligned with FISA ) took the opportunity to show where things would lead if teams were allowed to exploit loopholes in the regulations.

Ken Tyrrell was called to a meeting of the FISA Executive Committee on July 18 and, based on the impurities in the water, which had been topped up during a pit stop, was accused of refueling the car during the race.

Both drivers also raced the BT49 at the Long Beach Grand Prix, and the team boycotted the San Marino Grand Prix as part of the ongoing FISA – FOCA war.

In this role he drew up the first version of the Concorde Agreement, which settled a long-standing dispute between FOCA and the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile ( FISA ), the then governing body of Formula One.

For the fourth Grand Prix of the season, at Imola on April 25, amidst a war between the FISA and FOCA, only 14 cars loyal to the organisation started the race.

1978 was the year that Ecclestone became chief executive of FOCA and led it through the FISA-FOCA war that would lead to the downfall of FISA and give FOCA the right to negotiate television contracts for the Grands Prix, effectively giving Ecclestone commercial control of Formula 1 which continues to this day.

Originally the race was the eighth round of the season but moved up the order after the Spanish Grand Prix was removed from the schedule as a consequence of the first major confrontation between FISA and FOCA.

The Formula One Constructors Association ( FOCA ) and FISA had been in dispute over the control of the sport since 1979.

After the season got off to a bad start ( the first 3 races were nearly boycotted ; the first 2 due to safety concerns with both the Buenos Aires and Interlagos circuits and the third because of a dispute between FISA and FOCA ), the Drivers ’ Championship was won by Australian Alan Jones in a Williams and Williams took the Constructors award, the first of many Formula One titles for the English team.

The offseason had seen FISA ( La Federation Internationale du Sport Automobile ) and FOCA ( the Formula One Constructors ' Association ) in conflict, ostensibly over FISA's scheduled ban of aerodynamic skirts on the cars, but also over financial control of the sport.

This race was not part of the 1981 world championship due, in part, to the FISA – FOCA war.

The FISA – FOCA war was a political battle contested throughout the early 1980s by the two representative organizations in Formula One motor racing, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile ( FISA ) and the Formula One Constructors Association ( FOCA ).

The battle for control of Formula One was contested between the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile ( FISA ), at the time an autonomous subcommittee of the FIA, and FOCA ( the Formula One Constructors ' Association ).

The principals in the matter were Jean-Marie Balestre, then FISA president, Bernie Ecclestone, then the leader of the Formula One Constructor's Association and owner of the Brabham Formula One team, and Max Mosley, later president of the FIA, but then legal advisor to both Ecclestone's Brabham team and FOCA in general.

In the buildup to the race, FISA fined the majority of the FOCA team drivers who had not appeared at the drivers ' briefings at the Belgian and Monaco races and unless the fines were paid, the drivers at fault would have their racing licences revoked by the governing body.

After lengthy debates and negotiation between the GPDA, FISA and FOCA the dispute was settled in favour of the drivers, and the clause was dropped.

Senna had won his third world championship but the Brazilian put a damper on the celebrations in the post-race interview by making scathing comments about outgoing FISA president Jean-Marie Balestre and admitting that he intentionally rammed Alain Prost off the track the year before at Suzuka, leading to much resentment and criticism of Senna from the F1 community.

To get around a FISA rule that a team and driver can not run more than 2 engines in the one chassis during a season ( with the 012 running the Cosworth and 014 the Renault ), Tyrrell simply switched the drivers from one car to the other but not their car numbers meaning Bellof drove in car # 3 and Brundle in car # 4.

For the 1982 season, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile ( FISA ), motorsport's world governing body, abandoned the previous year's minimum ride height rule.

FISA responded by abandoning the rule change for the time being.

The FISA had implemented this rule in order to make it relatively easy to eliminate ground effect skirts and underwings, both of which required that the bodywork of the car be more or less in contact with the racing surface at all times.

Nigel Mansell and Williams were on a roll as Formula One arrived in Hungary, while Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost were ordered by FISA to work out their differences following their confrontation in the German Grand Prix.

FOCA's chief executive at the time was Bernie Ecclestone and his legal advisor was Max Mosley, while the president of FISA was Jean Marie Balestre.

FISA has been sponsoring the program for rowing events at the Olympic games since the initial Olympic games in 1896 in Athens.

The numerous Formula One regulations, made and enforced by the FIA and later the FISA, have changed dramatically since the first Formula One World Championship in 1950.

The first FISA Youth Regatta was held in 1967 and has been held every year since then, being raised to the status of FISA Junior Champs in 1970 and Junior World Champs in 1985.

In August 2008, the Court of Review affirmed the constitutionality of Protect America Act of 2007 in a heavily redacted opinion, In re Directives text Pursuant to Section 105B of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, released on January 15, 2009, which was only the second such public ruling since the enactment of the FISA Act.

The prelude to the race was notable for a strike action by the Grand Prix Drivers ' Association, led by Niki Lauda and Didier Pironi, in protest at the new superlicense conditions imposed by FISA, which would have tied the drivers to a single team for up to three years.

Detroit was removed from the Formula One schedule after 1988 after F1's governing body FISA declared the temporary pit area wasn't up to the required standard.