Liberty Media Formula 1 bid to be discussed by FIA World Council

The meeting will be held on January 18, the day after Liberty Media's shareholders vote on proposals to push through with its planned purchase of F1 and the renaming of its company to the Formula One Group.

The WMSC gathering will likely be a precursor to the FIA giving the necessary blessing to the Liberty takeover.

The American media company already has a 19.1% stake in the F1 company and, in December it announced that it had raised a further $1.55billion from investors to help increase the cash portion of its shareholding in F1.

Shortly before Christmas, Liberty announced that it had cleared one of its last remaining hurdles with approval of its purchase of F1 having been given by the appropriate anti-trust authorities.

It said at the time that the shareholder gathering and FIA approval were all that was now needed for the matter to be completed.

A statement said: "Closing of the acquisition remains conditioned upon approval by Liberty Media's stockholders of the issuance of LMCK shares in connection with the acquisition at a special meeting scheduled for Jan 17, 2017 and approval from the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of Formula 1.

"The acquisition is still expected to close before the end of the first quarter in 2017."

The WMSC meeting will also come one day after F1's Strategy Group - which includes Mercedes, Ferrari, Red Bull, McLaren, Williams and Force India - and F1 Commission gather to discuss potential rule changes for 2017 and beyond.