Through the early 1980s, Formula One was torn apart by the FISA-FOCA war, a power struggle between the British-led teams, who were organised under Bernie Ecclestone's constructors' association, and the sport's governing body, which was run through the FISA committee under Jean-Marie Balestre. The conflict peaked at the 1980 Spanish Grand Prix, when drivers from the constructors' association boycotted the mandatory briefing and the race ran as a non-championship event. A deal, the Concorde Agreement, was struck in 1981, and the 1982 season ran under its new rules. The season had two big technical stories: the ground-effect cars, which used airflow to pull themselves onto the track, and the turbocharged engines, which were fast but unreliable and hard to drive. Teams that used the older Cosworth engines found a loophole, running their cars below the minimum weight and dumping water from a tank after the pit exit.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.