Yahoo Autos Blais promoted to team principal of Maserati Formula E team
Maserati MSG has promoted Cyril Blais to team principal after he served as its deputy last season.
Blais took on the job of deputy team principal ahead of the Berlin E-Prix in May, serving under co-managing partner José Aznar who led the team following the departure of James Rossiter on the eve of the 2023-24 season.
“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.”
Blais has been a part of the Maserati MSG setup since 2022 when he joined the team (then in its Venturi guise) as Lucas di Grassi’s race engineer. He then worked with Maximilian Guenther for the last two seasons, while also working as chief engineer alongside his aforementioned role as deputy team principal in 2023-24.
“We are delighted to see Cyril elevated to the role of team principal,” said Aznar. “He truly deserves this and its clear testimony to his hard work and the leadership skills he has demonstrated throughout his time with the team.
“His extensive knowledge and experience within the sport, coupled with his passion and determination, will undoubtedly drive us towards continued success in the FIA Formula E World Championship.”
Blais’ promotion is the latest in a raft of changes at the Monaco-based team int eh last year, which also includes an entirely new driver lineup for the upcoming season with Jake Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne moving over from NEOM McLaren and DS Penske respectively, replacing DS Penske-bound Guenther and the as-yet-unattached Jehan Daruvala.
Maserati also recently announced that Maria Conti will be taking over from Giovanni Sgro as head of Maserati Corse, the brand’s competition division.
