I was sorting through some old VHS tapes at the weekend, and in the process ended up watching the ITV1 qualifying show for the 2004 Brazilian Grand Prix in the early hours of Sunday morning. Rock, and indeed, roll.

The news segment before the qualifying session was fascinating. The big story was the FIA Contract Recognition Board deciding that Jenson Button had to stay at BAR for 2005, rather than move to Williams. BAR boss David Richards was confident that it would actually improve their relationship, and suggested that straightforward relationships rarely achieve extraordinary things. I suppose he was right, ultimately: had Button moved to Williams, he’d not have been world champion.

Also on the news agenda was the British Grand Prix, which was, as always, at risk. There was Bernie Ecclestone complaining about Silverstone, as he does, but also about the ban on tobacco advertising – which seems like an outrageous thing to complain about now. It was only five and a half years ago, but how quickly we take things for granted.

It was Jaguar‘s last weekend, and there was scant optimism of a buyer being found. Little did they know, they needn’t have looked further than the Red Bull logo on the nose of the car. But with far larger Red Bull branding on the Sauber cars, there was no reason to look there at that point.

There was uncertainty too over the future of Jordan, which was losing a Ford engine supply with Jaguar’s exit. Minardi, too, had troubles, and wanted to run its 2004 car in 2005 to give it a chance of being less far behind.

All that led to plenty of talk of a ‘different kind’ of Formula 1 in 2005 – which seems oddly familiar, doesn’t it? Martin Brundle was “almost certain” that top teams would be running third cars – which wouldn’t have been eligible for points – in 2005. Some ideas never go away.

That didn’t happen, of course: Red Bull Racing has worked out nicely; Jordan was bought by Midland early in 2005, changing name in 2006, before becoming Spyker and finally Force India; and Minardi survived another season before being bought by Red Bull.

As for on-track action, practice had seen dogs on the circuit, and Michael Schumacher crash and catch fire. Then there was qualifying itself. This was back in the days of single lap qualifying, when a first run decided the order of the second run, which determined the grid – and was the only one broadcast. Needless to say, the current knock-out format is more entertaining, though the single lap system did allow for more analysis of each driver’s performance.

Finally, news broke at the end of the programme that qualifying would change for 2005, to a two session aggregate system, one on Saturday afternoon and one on Sunday morning. David Richards was all in favour; Mark Blundell – talking to Count von Count himself, Jim Rosenthal, both with their stupid little headsets on – was less sure. It lasted six races.