Cyril Blais is the new Team Principal of the Maserati MSG team, taking over from previously incumbent and co-managing partner José Aznar.
Maserati MSG described the move as having a “primary focus” on “optimising team performance and meticulously planning and preparing” for the upcoming pre-season test in Valencia and the 2024-25 season which begins in Sao Paulo on December 7.
“This new role represents the next stage of my career and I’m grateful for the belief in me that the team stakeholders have shown,” said Blais.
“I’m looking forward to focusing more on my leadership skills than pure engineering. One thing that I learned in my Deputy Team Principal role is that the running of a race team is never just down to one individual, and I wouldn’t feel as comfortable taking on this role if we didn’t have such a strong and experienced leadership group within the team.
“It’s easy to get along well and perform when you are achieving the results you want on track but we see the true nature of things when you have challenging times as a team. The strength of character and spirit that the team has demonstrated over the past two seasons has been really enlightening for me and I have a really good understanding of what needs to be done to maintain and build on this.
“Our main priority ahead of Valencia is ensuring that every member of the team has the optimum working environment and resources necessary for them to be able to perform at their best.”
Maserati MSG will run two new drivers this coming season after Jake Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne signed for the team last summer replacing Jehan Daruvala and DS Penske bound Maximilian Guenther.
Who is Cyril Blais?
Frenchman Blais made a lot of his way in motorsport in the UK after studying for a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Coventry between 2004 and 2006. He backed that up with a Masters Degree in vehicle dynamics at Kingston University.
His practical experience in professional motorsport came shortly after working with the Manor Motorsport team from 2007 to 2011 in the Euro F3 and GP3 series.
From there he moved on to the Arden International team where he engineered several drivers including Guenther in a seven year stint at the team where he rose to be technical director of the F2 squad.
He made a key career change in 2019 when he left to become a race engineer at Mahindra. It was here that he developed a strong relationship with Alex Lynn, who took a memorable win at the London EPrix in the summer of 2021.
Blais followed Lynn out of Mahindra later that year and started his on-going work at the Monaco Sports Group which metamorphosed from the Venturi operation in 2022, a year in which Blasi engineered Lucas di Grassi in his one-off season with the Monegasque operation.
Blais has quietly and methodically promoted several engineering and operational figures from within the MSG team since he took on more managerial positions over the last year, a role that he dovetailed with engineering Maximilian Guenther to several strong results last season, including winning the inaugural Tokyo EPrix.
Alex Dardelet became director of engineering at the end of 2023, while Thibault Arnal, Jean-Eric Vergne’s former engineer at DS Penske has been recruited over the summer.
More Changes at MSG Incoming?
Paddock speculation has peaked and dipped over the last year or so that at least additional investment will come in to the MSG element of the Maserati MSG squad.
Publicly the team states that ‘there is nothing to see here’ but behind the scenes constant evaluation of the team’s position, which from a financial standpoint is not strong, will see either new owners or additional investors added.
FEN understands that those discussions are ongoing but somewhat dependent on the decisions about to be carried out by Stellantis on where and how its brands in Formula E are positioned for the upcoming Gen4 period which although begins at the end of 2026, will see teams really kicking on with preparations now and in to 2025.
The bigger picture for Stellantis appears to be the likely replacement of racing programme supporter Carlos Tavares in 2026. Quite how this may affect Stellantis’ motorsport marketing programmes going forwards is unknown, although speculation remains active that DS Automobiles will be replaced by another of the 14 other brands in its portfolio.
Maserati has also made a significant change in its sporting structure recently with the announcement that Maserati MSG will have a new Head of its motorsport division.
Maria Conti replaces the outgoing Giovanni Srgo and has been promoted from her position as Chief Communication Officer and will report to Maserati CEO, Davide Grasso and Stellantis Motorsport VP, Jean-Marc Finot.
