Maserati unveils its first one-seater racing car in over 60 years.
Maserati has an illustrious history in motorsports that spans both Formula One and top-level endurance racing, but the brand has been absent from the race track for more than a decade.
In 2023, when Maserati will compete in Season 9 of the Formula E World Championship, the new electric racing car, the Maserati Tipo Folgore Gen3, which was unveiled on Tuesday. Folgore, which means "lightning bolt" in Italian, is the name of Maserati's planned EVs, the first of which are the GranTurismo Folgore and Grecare Folgore.
The race car's public debut came nearly 100 years after Maserati's first race car, the Tipo 26, debuted at the 1926 Targa Florio and took first place in its class with Alfieri Maserati at the wheel. It is also more than 60 years since the 250F, Maserati's last single-seater racer, was unveiled in the 1957 Formula 1 season, piloted by Juan Manuel Fangio.
In Formula E, Maserati partnered with its existing team, Venturi Racing, to form a new team, Maserati MSG, with Susie Wolff as CEO and Jerome d'Ambrosio as team principal. The drivers will be Edoardo Mortara and Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi.
They will pilot the Maserati Tipo Folgore Gen3, based on Formula E's new Gen3 race car, which will debut in season 9. As in previous seasons, the Gen3 is a common design for all teams, but specific parameters can be developed by each team.
The Gen3 is the fastest and most efficient car ever introduced in Formula E, with a front motor generator of 335 hp and a rear motor generator of 470 hp. According to organizers, the machine converts about 95% of the battery's electrical energy into motion and collects an average of 40% of the energy needed in a race through regenerative braking alone. The top speed is expected to be over 200 mph.
The Maserati Tipo Folgore Gen3 will undergo extensive testing in preparation for the first race of the new season on January 14 in Mexico City.
The car is not the only new Maserati racer coming in 2023. Maserati is also developing an MC20 GT2, which will be offered to customer teams competing in the SRO-sanctioned GT2 European series.
