Roll back the clock to 11 January 2022 and Maserati made the announcement which the motorsport world had been waiting 66 years for, that they’d finally be making their return to single-seater racing.
Formula E was the Italian manufacturer’s chosen destination, in time for the start of the Gen3 era in 2023.
Three months later, in April 2022, it was confirmed that Venturi Racing would complete a full rebrand following the conclusion of season eight and become MSG (Monaco Sports Group) Racing. The exciting detail of their rebrand, though, was that Maserati would become their title partner. With that, Maserati MSG Racing was born.
With MSG having enjoyed considerable success under the Venturi name, Maserati probably assumed that they’d struck gold from the get-go, after Maximilian Günther topped almost every session in the official pre-season test ahead of season nine.
To say that Maserati MSG Racing were dominant in testing almost 12 months ago is an understatement, as predictions were quickly made that they would be, without a shadow of a doubt, title contenders. That prediction immediately came back to bite.
Round 1 of season nine in Mexico City, neither Günther nor Edoardo Mortara progressed to the duels, with the pair having managed only P16 and P17 respectively. Their one-lap pace from testing was nowhere to be seen. The first race of the campaign was no better, as Günther could only salvage 11th, whilst Mortara crashed out.
Being the first race of a new era with completely new machinery, the side were given the benefit of the doubt, as were several others. Diriyah two weeks later confirmed their Mexico City fears, though, that they were “nowhere”.
These were the recent words of Günther, who failed to even compete in the first of two races in Diriyah, after crashing heavily in qualifying. Mortara, too, was in the wall on the first day in Saudi Arabia. When cameras panned to the Maserati garage, stunned faces were all that was on show.
After being so fast in testing, it was quickly dawning on Maserati and MSG, that considerable work was needed to revitalise the squad. Good luck continued to not be in the team’s dictionary in Hyderabad, where Günther was robbed of a point-scoring finish after being caught up in Sam Bird and Mitch Evans colliding.
Günther’s loss was Mortara’s gain, though, as Maserati finally got their first points on the board. Hyderabad showed a glimmer of what the team’s package was capable of, whilst Cape Town brightened its shine after Günther progressed to the final of the duels.
However, the glimmer was once again too distant, as the German crashed out whilst competing for a rostrum. São Paulo was another weekend to forget. Six races into their partnership and Maserati MSG Racing sat 10th in the Teams’ Championship, on a minimal three points.
To say that the side endured bad luck in the opening rounds is putting it lightly in all due respect. It was more like a lifetime of woes in the space of just over two months. In many ways, Maserati’s return to motorsport couldn’t have gotten off to a more troubling start.
Despite the driver errors and team mistakes, there was clearly pace in the Maserati Tipo Folgore. It was just a matter of time until all the pieces of the puzzle were finally put together. The first big step towards this was made in Berlin, where despondent faces were finally not on show.
At Günther’s home race, he rewarded the team for their monumental efforts and never give up mentality with a stunning podium, salvaged with a last corner overtake on Sébastian Buemi. It marked Maserati’s first single-seater podium in 66 years. To add to the jubilation, Mortara made it a first double points finish of the season for the team.
Finally, things were starting to come together. More points followed in the second race of the Berlin weekend, courtesy of Günther once again. He would’ve made it three top-10 finishes in a row in Monaco, had it not been for Dan Ticktum’s antics up Beau Rivage.
A top-10 finish at MSG’s home would’ve been special but Günther’s magical Jakarta E-Prix weekend more than made up for it. Günther’s performance in the season nine Jakarta double-header will go down in history as one of the greatest in Formula E, as he was nothing short of exceptional.
Similarly, to how he topped almost every session in the season nine test, Günther was first in every session bar one in Jakarta, the opening race. He went quickest in every practice session, claimed pole position for both races, finished third in the first race, before his true heroic moment came in the second.
On 4 June 2023, Maserati became single-seater winners for the first time since 1957, as the team finally completed what appeared to be the most difficult of puzzles. Günther stormed to a dominant victory, making all the blood, sweat and tears of the first six months of season nine absolutely worth it.
Günther and Maserati MSG Racing just came alive in the second half of season nine, with a home podium for the Italian manufacturer having also been claimed in Rome later in the season. Günther was again responsible for this.
The side, who had just three points after six rounds, had 140 come the end of the 2023 season. It was enough for sixth in the Teams’ Championship. Günther was responsible for 101 of the points, putting him seventh in the Drivers’ Championship.
What makes Günther’s points haul that much more impressive, is that he only finished in the top-10 in seven races. This alone is the proof in the pudding, that if Maserati and MSG can get everything working like clockwork from round 1, then the world is their oyster in season 10.
Günther finished on the rostrum four times in 2023, the same number as Pascal Wehrlein – who led the standings for three months. It shows that the pace and the performance needed is in Maserati MSG Racing’s package. It’s just about learning their lessons of what went wrong at the start of the season.
Their recovery was undoubtedly one of the stories of season nine, especially as Maserati history was made despite how poorly the year started. Simply recovering to sixth in the standings isn’t enough, though, MSG in particular are Formula E winners and will settle for nothing less.
Maserati MSG Racing Principal Owner and Chairman, Scott Swid, explained to Motorsport Week that the team are “frustrated” with how things unfolded last season. The team want more, they are hungry for more. As Swid put it, the unsatisfactory result “just drives us further”.
“Yeah, it’s a sport, right. So, everyone is super competitive,” Swid said. “Also, this is a very tight team, and it’s the only team I know, but I would imagine all teams are pretty tight because of the travel schedule and the goal is common and it really breathes a sense of camaraderie.
“Our team has a lot of camaraderie. We have a lot of desire to win. I would say the team was frustrated, which I view as a good thing. Meaning, this is the original team of Formula E, it’s been in every season. I think, if my history is correct, Gildo [Pallanca Pastor, Venturi founder] was the first to sort of sign on with Alejandro [Agag, Formula E founder].
“So we’ve been at every race, and this was, I think, our second best season ever, which would sound positive, but because we turned around our whole mentality of expecting to win, because we actually, up until the very last race in Korea of two seasons ago [S8], we thought we were going to win.
“That sixth place really didn’t taste very good, which I’d say it’s a positive. So, I think there’s a lot of frustration, but with the fact that we didn’t do as well as we wanted to do, I think it just drives us further.”
Since Swid took on his role in 2020, it’s no secret that the team has seen significant personnel changes. It’s been no different ahead of season 10, with Mortara and now ex-Team Principal James Rossiter having departed.
Motorsport is in many ways one big game of trial and error; you only find out if it works by trying it. Maserati MSG Racing aren’t afraid of trying new things to fight with the very best on the grid, whether that be by signing a new driver (Jehan Daruvala) or choosing a new Team Principal.
It’s not just those positions which have been altered, though, as the side also have the “incredible story” of making a former intern one of their race engineers. It’s proof that working hard does get you noticed by Swid and the team, with open doors allowing for “incredible people” to enter the frame.
“There’s been turnover in our team,” Swid recognised. “There’s turnover in every team. I’ve been in this series for three years; it seems like every team has turnover every year! But I think when people leave, it opens up doors for incredible people to run through it.
“So, we elevated a race engineer last year to a technical engineer, and then we had a new race engineer, a young guy who started as an intern, and now he’s our race engineer. It’s an incredible story.
“One of our race engineers is now our technical engineer, who is very muscular in his management style, also not just his technical style. So, you turn over a rock, there’s always something below it.
“With our team, it’s led to great things. We have a changeover in our team principal. It’s a hot job, a lot of people want it and we’re taking our time trying to figure it out.”
History runs through the veins of Maserati and MSG who, as mentioned, are one of the founding Formula E teams. The side have nine wins to their name and are on the verge of eclipsing 1,000 World Championship points in season 10, as they’re only 55 adrift of the milestone.
Winning is part of who both companies are. This is what makes their partnership in many ways so perfect. Once they both have the “taste of victory”, they won’t settle for anything less.
Given how long Maserati were away from single-seater racing and the amount of history behind the Italian company, it’d be easy to assume that perhaps this has added pressure onto the team to perform from the get-go.
However, Swid is certain this isn’t the case. Both Maserati and MSG are “hyper competitive” and have a drive and a thirst to succeed and reach the top, which is why the side were “driving ourselves hard” when times were tough at the start of season nine.
In many ways, the only pressure being applied is what the team are putting onto themselves, purely because they’ll settle for nothing but the best. It’s just what both companies have in their DNA.
“Well, they want to win, too. They want to win as bad as anyone,” Swid stressed.
“And their motorsports group is hyper focused on us and you know, they love to race and winning is important to them, but it doesn’t put any extra pressure on us because we’re hyper competitive.
“I mean, there’s, like I said earlier, just having the taste of victory. I think we won five times, five races the season before. So, when you get accustomed to that, it’s hard. You don’t want to let that up. So, we’re driving ourselves hard.
“Maserati certainly just fits right in with that, but they’re not putting any extra added pressure on us.”
A noticeable feature about Maserati MSG Racing, is their high-end sponsors. Whilst Maserati themselves are a classic luxury company, the team also have several other sponsors of a similar legacy and class.
Gaining sponsors in motorsport is no easy feat, as teams often discover in times of turbulence. With Maserati being such a fashionable manufacturer, though, does that in itself present MSG with challenges when selecting further partners?
Swid explained how, if anything, it’s the complete opposite, due to the history behind Maserati and the iconic city of Monaco. Maserati becoming MSG’s title partner has only improved the team’s ability to attract world-class sponsors and is not in any way “hurting us”.
“I don’t think so, because I think that, in a certain sense, the brand that we were building and have built over the years is not too dissimilar from Maserati,” Swid explained.
“Meaning some of our sponsors were Dorchester Group, super high-end hotels, Elite Vodka, one of the highest priced vodkas in the world, Hewlett Packard, a company that’s been on top since the 1920s.
“So, we’re in Monaco, a glamorous city. I think with a great race heritage. So, I think Maserati’s race heritage, Maserati being in it in the 50s, racing in Monaco and a lot of our sponsors were around in the 1950s.
“So, I do think that the image that we’ve been giving off fits nicely with Maserati, and I do think that it’s tough to get sponsors in general, but I don’t think that Maserati is hurting us. If anything, they’re helping us.”
Maserati and MSG’s first season as partners was a rollercoaster; albeit a rollercoaster which starts with a sizeable rise, before falling away as if there is no tomorrow! Neither company could’ve predicted how well season nine testing would go, nor how badly the season would start.
The strength of this still relatively new partnership, though, is that the weaknesses and mistakes were noticed and, most importantly, accepted. There was no hiding behind lies, the team knew that the only way to start the climb was to show that “camaraderie”, which Swid explained.
An incredible amount of physical, mental and emotional strength was demonstrated in season nine and has clearly carried on into season 10. Yes, unexpected personnel changes have taken place, but that isn’t stopping the team from pushing for greatness.
Testing for season 10 showed that progress with the package has been made, with Günther having been the fifth-quickest driver. Considerable data was also collected, with the side having until mid-January to go over it.
From the outside, Maserati and MSG’s partnership appears to have grown stronger because of their season nine struggles. The mistakes have been accepted, changes have been made and lessons have been learnt.
The Formula E paddock should not forget about Maserati MSG Racing or discount them from the season 10 title picture. All the signs are pointing in the right direction and any team which won’t settle for anything but the best is one to keep an eye on.
