Ever since Liberty Media acquired Formula 1 (F1) from Bernie Ecclestone for $4.6 billion in January 2016 it has been clear that the sport was in for a major move online. This has now come to pass with announcement that races will be broadcast via a direct streaming service from 2018 in those countries where F1 has not already sold rights to traditional pay TV operators running up to 2023. This is not just about going online but follows a review by Liberty Media – a sister company of pay TV group Liberty Global – over the wider relationship between TV, sponsorship and audience participation. Following this review F1 has as good as admitted that it is not happy with…