Cyril Blais, team principal of Citroën Racing’s Formula E operation, has died. He was 43. The announcement came over the weekend through a joint statement from Monaco Sports Group (MSG), which operates the team on track, alongside Citroën, Stellantis Motorsport, Formula E, and the FIA — an unusually broad coalition of signatories for a single personnel loss, reflecting how many organizations Blais’s role touched.
No cause of death was disclosed. The organizations said none would be, citing the family’s wishes for privacy.
Beth Paretta, managing director of the Citroën Racing Formula E team, said many on the roster had worked alongside Blais for years. “We are all so saddened to lose Cyril,” she said, adding that the team intended to keep racing in a way that reflects what he built. Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds called the loss devastating for the paddock and confirmed the series would mark Blais’s memory during this weekend’s Tokyo E-Prix double-header. Citroën CEO Xavier Chardon and Stellantis Motorsport chief Olivier Jansonnie said Blais had been central to the manufacturer’s electric racing push from the start of its partnership with MSG. FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem pointed to the integrity Blais brought to the role and the impression he left across the grid.
The MSG operation has been part of Formula E since the series’ inaugural season, racing under the Venturi banner, then Maserati, and now Citroën — a run that has produced 11 race wins, 29 podiums, and five pole positions across three manufacturer identities. Drivers who have passed through that garage include Stoffel Vandoorne, Maximilian Günther, Edoardo Mortara, Felipe Massa, and Jérôme d’Ambrosio. Blais shepherded the switch from Maserati to Citroën this season alongside drivers Jean-Éric Vergne and Nick Cassidy — the kind of rebrand continuity work that never makes a highlight reel but determines whether a manufacturer program survives its first identity crisis.
Citroën currently sits seventh in the teams’ championship with 115 points — a respectable if unspectacular debut season under the new badge. The Tokyo double-header lands just days after the announcement, with London still to come as the season’s closing round. The team said it intends to honor Blais at the track rather than away from it.
The structural question underneath the grief is real. Formula E’s next car generation, GEN4, is set to debut with a double-header season opener in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on December 18 and 19 — the first time Saudi Arabia has hosted a season opener since 2021/22. Whoever eventually fills Blais’s role inherits a manufacturer program on the verge of an entirely new technical era, along with the budget, staffing, and strategy decisions that come with it. In a spec-chassis series where competitive edges live in software calibration and energy deployment strategy, the team principal is the person translating between a manufacturer’s brand priorities and an operator’s day-to-day racing decisions. That is the seat now vacant.
Racing does not pause for loss. How a team this size handles it — quietly, at speed, with a double-header waiting — says as much about the sport’s culture as anything on a timing screen this weekend.
Sources
- Yahoo Sports — Formula E’s Citroën Racing Team Principal Cyril Blais Has Died
- Autosport — Citroen Formula E team boss Cyril Blais dies aged 43