Plans for the Maserati MSG Formula E team to be acquired by a new owner have collapsed in recent days, leaving the team in a delicate position as it continues to try to establish a long-term future in the championship.
A would-be investor group, which was led by a former DJ and NASA employee called Brooklyn Earick, had effectively announced the takeover at last month's Jeddah E-Prix when Earick appeared on camera in qualifying with a graphic entitled 'Maserati MSG Chairman and CEO'.
The Race can reveal that Earick was set to take over the MSG team from previous owners Scott Swid and Jose Aznar with an agreed deal that appeared to have been completed on the Thursday prior to the Jeddah event.
The transaction is believed to have been dependent on certain criteria being met by the proposed new owner this month.
However, these obligations are believed to have not been met, meaning that the deal has not gone through. A consequent extrication from the takeover plan is now being executed.
The Race understands that part of Earick's plan was to introduce some celebrity music industry personalities to the team.
As a consequence of the collapse of the deal, Maserati MSG is now receiving support from Formula E Operations alongside looking for a fresh buyer and investor.
Why a takeover is needed
The Maserati MSG team is known to have been in a precarious financial situation for the last few seasons with extra investors and/or new owners sought for the business.
MSG - which stands for Monaco Sports Group - previously ran under the Venturi banner and was bought by Swid and Aznar from its founder Gildo Pallanca Pastor, one of the wealthiest individuals in the principality, in 2021.
The transition to the Maserati MSG name took place a year later after the deal for Stellantis to bring its Maserati brand into Formula E alongside its DS brand was concluded at the end of 2021, and then announced formally in April of 2022 before a race debut in Mexico in January 2023.
Since that time, Maserati MSG has struggled to get regular investment into the team through external partners. The team is believed to have had a significant amount of debt as the present season began and was already receiving assistance from Formula E.
The overall problems are largely down to the specific model of its set-up as a team. Bringing external budget in via partners is vital because Maserati as a brand brings only modest financial resources and a supply of Stellantis stablemate DS Automobiles' powertrain to the table at present.
This was done via a special deal in 2022 that allowed Maserati to officially become a Formula E manufacturer despite not generating its own hardware. It runs the DS powertrain as a customer in all but name.
That framework is in place until the end of 2026 with negotiations ongoing now between Maserati and MSG regarding a continuation into the initial homologation for the Gen4 car era, which begins at the end of 2026.
But the situation left MSG significantly exposed financially and it has continually looked for additional investment, talking to various parties over the last two seasons, but to no significant avail before Earick arrived on the scene.
Who is Brooklyn Earick?
Earick has multiple business ventures in the tech, blockchain and music industries and told The Race in Jeddah last month that his and his investment team's objectives for Maserati MSG were to "be of service to the team, where they tell me what they need to win championships" and "to help bring that to them whether that's money, more sponsors, or both".
Earick visited the Maserati MSG headquarters in Monaco for the first time in early March, where he met staff and is believed to have alluded to bringing in a significant title partner over the duration of five years.
Earick is the founder of Redacted RnD and also has an investment fund entity called Algorith Capital that focuses on technology. Neither of these are believed to have been directly involved in the Maserati acquisition though.
Redacted RnD describes itself as "a thought leader in blockchain innovation and digital assets" with its leader described as "a seasoned entrepreneur" which has "raised over $500million globally with multiple successful exits".
His partner and co-founder of Redacted RnD is Ru Finnegan, a senior advisor to the White Bay Group, a multi-asset investment firm and a senior advisor at Clay Cove Capital.
How the aborted deal evolved
The genesis of the deal for Earick's consortium to take over Maserati MSG actually came via an initial plan for another entity that was in discussions to take over from Swid and Aznar.
That then morphed into Earick's team taking over the deal and agreeing the acquisition in the week of the Jeddah E-Prix, which he attended and where he spoke to media including The Race.
"He [an associate] messaged me and said, 'Hey, I have another friend that is looking at this Maserati deal and would you be interested in talking with them?" Earick told The Race in Jeddah.
"I said, 'Yes'. They were asking me to invest in their conglomerate, but I said I'd rather kind of take over the deal and bring in some people from my end and kind of put them under our umbrella.
"They agreed with what I presented, and that's kind of how I got introduced to the whole thing."
Formula E would not comment to The Race on the situation when contacted this week.
Due diligence for the Earick takeover was conducted by Formula E, the FIA and Maserati MSG, while Earick was advised by the Cooley LLC and Dentons law practice businesses based in the US and the Cayman Islands respectively.
On-track miracles despite off-track instability
Despite the uncertainty over the Maserati MSG team's future, it has masked the off-track difficulties well, winning races in both 2023 and 2024 with Maximilian Guenther in Jakarta and Tokyo (above).
A large part of this was down to the promotion of former race engineer Cyril Blais, who, under uncertain and difficult circumstances, built a tight operational and engineering structure in the team through late 2023 and 2024.
With the promised fresh investment through the proposed Earick-led investment team, Maserati MSG would have been able to kick on and potentially become the predominant Stellantis brand in Formula E. Although that may have depended on an imminent decision on whether DS could continue into the Gen4 era.
Maserati MSG recently went on a recruitment drive, advertising for several positions within its team including a race engineer, tyre performance engineer and senior performance engineer.
How will Maserati MSG survive?
With the plans for Earick to take over scrapped, getting a new buyer and investors in the Maserati MSG team will have to be an absolute priority.
The team can survive but the reality is it will only happen if a suitable investor or new owners is found, and quickly.
Formula E will likely again be forced to prop up the team but that can't be sustained for long as it will amass even larger debts.
The last time a similar situation occurred was when the DS Techeetah squad was in its death throes in 2021 and 2022. That team did not survive and was essentially disbanded and distributed across the Penske and DS operations which amalgamated in late 2022.
The added complication around the Maserati MSG situation though also comes via Stellantis and what it may or may not be able to structure for the upcoming Gen4 period from the end of 2026 onwards.
Whether it reduces its Formula E presence to one brand only (more likely DS than Maserati if so) or opts for an Opel, Citroen or Alfa Romeo alternative, the doubts around Maserati's Gen4 involvement are already swirling.
MSG's future feels at best open, dependent on credible new owners, and at worst now highly vulnerable.
