By alley - Oct 5, 2016, 5:45 PM ET

F1: Mosley warned against FIA stake

Former FIA president Max Mosley says that he warned the regulatory body against acquiring the stake in Formula 1's commercial rights that is now the center of a possible conflict of interest investigation by the European Commission.

Liberty Media last month confirmed its intention to buy F1's parent company Delta Topco for $4.4 billion, however it emerged that the FIA stands to make $44m from the deal from its one percent share in Delta Topco.

The potential conflict arises from the takeover requiring FIA approval, a situation that recently prompted a British Member of the European Parliament to write to the European Commission

requesting that the deal be looked into

.

Mosley, whose FIA presidency ended four years before the governing body bought the Delta Topco stake in 2013, told U.K. publication City A.M. that he believes the FIA's investment was contrary to a deal that it did with the European Commission in 2001, when it agreed to divest itself of all commercial ties to F1 in response to complaints that it favored F1 over other championships that it governed.

"I queried it at the time because it didn't seem to me to be entirely in keeping with the arrangement we made with the EC," Mosley said. "But the FIA's view was that it was 'de minimis' – too small to matter – and they said this will have no effect on governing motorsport.

"I was slightly surprised because the turnover of the FIA in those days was in the order of $50-60m a year, which was the theoretical value of the one percent, so it's more or less like a year's income and I didn't see that as 'de minimis.'"

Liberty's takeover of F1 is scheduled to be finalized in 2017.