When Maserati, one of motorsports original legendary marques via its immediate pre and post war Grand Prix exploits announced in January 2022 that it was returning to motorsport via Formula E there was rightly great fanfare.
A few months later at an official launch on the banks of the Lago dell’ EUR in the south of Rome, its big hitters talked of a new era of competition in the only all-electric world championship on the planet.
The Trident marque was a glittery name for Formula E to add but behind the flourish there was a more mundane set-up.
Maserati was coming in to Formula E as a brand alone. There was no bespoke technology, no integration of itself in to the team that would be run by the then Venturi squad. This was a marketing exercise and little more. So be it. It was better than not having such a name on the grid.
Yet just three seasons on Maserati is gone. It scored a victory in each of its seasons but ultimately it was much less successful than the Venturi name that it and the Monaco Sports Group entry vehicle succeeded.
As a standalone case Maserati was a mistake for Stellantis. The brand’s sales dropped by more than 50% in 2024 to 11,300 units. It also posted a $298 million adjusted operating loss.
From a marketing standpoint the continuation of a Formula E program was anathema when its electric products were not selling and some of its future projects were canned.
Maserati will be replaced by Citroen next season at the MSG entry, with a stellar line-up of Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne at the team. That’s 20 EPrix wins between them.
While the future points to much optimism, now is the time to assess what Maserati brought to Formula E via the memories, good and bad that it made.
Initial Tough Times…..
Maserati’s introduction to Formula E bordered on the cruel and cataclysmic.
Prior to it actually making its debut at the 2023 Mexico City EPrix there were two clear hurdles the team had to clear.
One was pivoting after Nyck de Vries was forced to renege on a deal to join Edoardo Mortara for the 2023 season when his late-flowering F1 career finally took off in the autumn of 2022, initially with Williams and then briefly with Alpha Tauri.
The team flirted with Alex Lynn but eventually settled on Maximilian Guenther who was fresh from a bruising season with a transitional Nissan.
The second challenge was, like the rest of the grid, getting the Gen3 cars in a state to race. Amid the backdrop of a tetchy ownership via Scott Swid and Jose Aznar this was a challenging period. Thrust within it was new team principal James Rossiter. With experience on the sporting side at DS Techeetah he appeared to be the perfect choice. It lasted less than a year.
And what a year it was. It started horrendously with multiple accidents for both Guenther and Mortara, notably at Diriyah where the team lost a chassis after Guenther’s practice shunt and at Cape Town where Mortara trashed his in qualifying.
Amid the growing spares bills and splintered carbon fibre though came some promise.
Good Times….
Jakarta in June 2023 was a key breakthrough for the team. Guenther was completely imperious, converting a pole in to a win the day after he finished a close third to Pascal Wehrlein and Jake Dennis after also taking top spot in qualifying.
A further podium in both the Berlin and Rome EPrixs saw the German finish easily ahead of teammate Mortara, who well before the end of the season had decided upon a change and headed to Mahindra, along with engineering lead Jeremy Colancon.
Maserati MSG finished the season sixth in the teams’ standings and just a few points off Stellantis big sister DS Penske. After the early flurry of carnage there was much to go on for its second season in 2024.
Tough Times Again….
Some alarm bells started to be rung in September 2024 when James Rossiter was mysteriously ejected from his TP role a few weeks ahead of the pre-season test at Valencia.
The circumstances and details were never officially divulged and it allowed Cyril Blais to be promoted to deputy TP while owner Aznar became the de facto boss at races. This was a curious turn of events but perhaps more curious still was the signing of Jehan Daruvala, fresh from a few seasons of F2.
Not without pace or talent Daruvala was thrust in to the team, clearly to assist its running budget too. In many respects it was a tough ask for him to swim instead of sink, and while he didn’t really do either, it meant that the team fell from sixth in the standings to an eventual eighth, buoyed only by Guenther’s brilliant Tokyo victory.
2025 promised much but delivered little. Not only that but the teams very existence started to come on to the news agenda in one of Formula E’s most farcical episodes yet when a potential investor, who should have been nowhere near the paddock, was welcomed in and wasted everyone’s time.
That shambles saw Formula E take the licence back from MSG and essentially soak up most aspects of its budget for 2025. It’s a situation which is still ongoing although recent positive investment possibilities are said to be close to stabilising the business.
This, in conjunction with Citroen usurping Maserati from next season onwards, and the signing of Cassidy, the shifting over of Vergne and the planning for Gen4 is at least giving those that have lived through a nightmarish last 18 months some respite.
Through it all Maserati has really been a curious presence that has seldom seemed to fully embrace Formula E and probably vice versa. While logic has often been missing from its time as a brand in Formula E, at least now some clarity appears to exist for 50% of Stellantis’ entries and the loyal, talented and stoic employees of MSG can at least beyond the next race.
