Liberty Media became famous when it took over the F1 industry. Formula One's teams are on track to contribute a chunk of the $4.4 billion which Liberty Media is using to buy the auto racing series according to the company's chief executive Greg Maffei.

When it was announced in September that Liberty plans to buy control of F1 from the private equity firm CVC it came to light that the teams had been offered the opportunity to buy shares in the business and series of other investments.

Three shares have been designated as team shares and F1's new chairman Chase Carey said that "some of the teams have expressed an interest in investing." However, it wasn't clear at the time who the teams would be buying the shares from or where the money would go. It is now.

Speaking yesterday at a Liberty investor meeting Mr Maffei said "we obviously also went to meet with the teams and I think as has been mentioned we have expectations that they will become owners in Formula One primarily through the placement of some of the shares to the CVC Group to them. They're excited about some of the things that Liberty and Chase can do for the sport."

Mr Maffei is referring to shares in Liberty which are being offered to CVC as payment instead of cash. As Forbes has reported, cash comprises just 25% of the $4.4 billion purchase price for F1 with shares in Liberty making up the remainder along with a payout of $351 million in loans which will convert into non-voting Liberty shares in 30 months. As a result of this, CVC stands to get at most $354 million in cash for its 38.1% stake in F1. It has already made a $4.4 billion return from dividends and selling previous stakes in F1 but it wanted much more.