Blue Maserati

The Maserati brothers, Alfieri, Bindo, Carlo, Ettore, and Ernesto, were involved with automobiles from the beginning of the 20th century. Alfieri, Bindo, and Ernesto built 2-litre Grand Prix cars for Diatto. After Diatto suspended the production of race cars in 1926, the brothers founded the Maserati marque. One of the first Maseratis, driven by Alfieri, won the 1926 Targa Florio. Maserati began making race cars with 4, 6, 8, and 16 cylinders.

The company's trident logo, designed by Mario Maserati, is based on Neptune's trident of the Fountain of Neptune in Bologna's Piazza Maggiore. In 1920, one of the Maserati brothers used this symbol in the logo at the suggestion of family friend Marquis Diego de Sterlich. Alfieri Maserati died in 1932, but Bindo, Ernesto, and Ettore kept the firm going.

In 1937, the remaining Maserati brothers sold their shares in the company to the Adolfo Orsi family, who in 1940 moved the company headquarters to their home town of Modena, where it remains to this day. The brothers continued in engineering roles with the company. Racing successes continued, even against the giants of German racing, Auto Union and Mercedes.

In back-to-back wins in 1939 and 1940, a Maserati 8CTF won the Indianapolis 500, making Maserati the only Italian manufacturer ever to do so. The second world war then intervened and Maserati abandoned carmaking to produce components for the Italian war effort. Once peace was restored, Maserati returned to making cars; the Maserati A6 series did well in the post-war racing scene.

Key people joined the Maserati team. Alberto Massimino, a former Fiat engineer with both Alfa Romeo and Ferrari experience, oversaw the design of all racing models for the next ten years. With him joined engineers Giulio Alfieri, Vittorio Bellentani, and Gioacchino Colombo. These new projects saw the last contributions of the Maserati brothers, who, after their 10-year contract with Orsi expired, went on to form O.S.C.A.. This new team at Maserati worked on several projects: the Maserati 4CLT, the Maserati A6 series, the 8CLT, and the A6GCS.

The famous Argentinian Grand Prix driver Juan-Manuel Fangio raced for Maserati for a number of years in the 1950s, achieving a number of stunning victories including winning the Formula One World Championship in 1957 in the 250F.

Other racing projects in the 1950s were the Maserati 200S, Maserati 300S, Maserati 350S, and Maserati 450S, followed in 1961 by the famous Maserati Birdcage Tipo 61.

Maserati retired from factory racing participation because of the Guidizzolo tragedy during the 1957 Mille Miglia, though they continued to build cars for privateers. Maserati became more and more focused on building road-going grand tourers.

In 1968, Maserati was taken over by Citroën. Adolfo Orsi remained the nominal president, but Maserati was controlled by its new owner. The relationship started as a joint venture, made public in January 1968, in which Maserati would design and manufacture an engine for Citroën's upcoming flagship called SM. Launched in 1970, the SM was a four-seat front-wheel-drive coupé, powered by a Maserati Tipo C114 2.7-litre 90° V6 engine; this engine and its gearbox had been used in other vehicles, such as rally-prepared Citroën DSs used by Bob Neyret in Bandama Rally, and in the Ligier JS2.

On 8 August 1975, an agreement was signed at the Ministry of Industry in Rome, and property of Maserati passed from Citroën to Italian state-owned holding company GEPI and Alejandro de Tomaso, an Argentinian industrialist and former racing driver, became president and CEO. Beginning in 1976, new models were introduced, sharing their underpinnings—but not their engines—with De Tomaso cars; first came the Kyalami grand tourer, derived from the De Tomaso Longchamp, restyled by Frua and powered by Maserati's own V8.

The 1980s saw the company largely abandoning the mid-engine sports car in favour of a compact front-engine, rear-drive coupé, the Biturbo. The Biturbo family was extremely successful at exploiting the aspirational image of the Maserati name—selling 40,000 units. In 1983 and 1984, the range was extended to include saloons (the 425 and 420) and a cabriolet (the Zagato-bodied Spyder), respectively on a long and short wheelbase of the Biturbo platform.

On 19 May 1993, Alejandro De Tomaso sold his 51% stake in Maserati to Fiat, which became the sole owner. In 1994, the aging Quattroporte III/Royale was replaced by the Quattroporte IV which was ultimately based on Biturbo underpinnings. Styled by Marcello Gandini, it was initially available with a V6 engine shared with the Ghibli II.

In July 1997, Fiat sold a 50% share in the company to Maserati's long-time arch-rival Ferrari, as the latter itself being owned by Fiat. In 1999, Ferrari took full control, making Maserati its luxury division. A new factory was built, replacing the existing 1940s-era facility. Since early 2002, Maserati once again entered the United States market, which has quickly become its largest market worldwide. The company has also re-entered the racing arena with their Trofeo and, in December 2003, the MC12, which was developed according to FIA GT regulations and has since competed with great success in the world FIA GT championship.

The Maserati and Alfa Romeo group, under the Fiat Group ownership, started in 2005, when Maserati was split off from Ferrari and partnered with Alfa Romeo. On 9 June 2005, the 20,000th Maserati, a Quattroporte V, left the factory. In the second quarter of 2007, Maserati made profit for the first time in 17 years under Fiat ownership.

In 2014, to celebrate the centenary of its foundation, Maserati released a concept car called Maserati Alfieri, in honor of the brand's founder, Alfieri Maserati. On May 6, 2014, Maserati confirmed production of the Maserati Levante SUV and the Maserati Alfieri. However, the Alfieri concept, which received great critical and commercial success, never came to production.

Subsequently, in 2021, FCA merged with the French PSA Group to form Stellantis, reuniting Maserati with Citroën under the same ownership. Under Stellantis, a new SUV will be released starting in 2022 alongside the Levante, the Maserati Grecale, smaller in size than the Levante, which achieves good critical and sales success. In 2023, production of the Maserati Ghibli and Maserati Quattroporte was halted, while the new Maserati GranTurismo was released also with the new electric motor called Folgore.

On 17 March 2022, chief executive officer Davide Grasso announced that Maserati will produce an electric version of all of its models by 2025. The CEO also announced plans to phase out all of its internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030. All Maserati EVs will wear the Folgore name.

The Maserati MC20 is a 2-door, mid-engined sports car that debuted in September 2020. The car features a carbon fibre monocoque and a 3-litre V6 engine producing 630 horsepower. The Maserati Grecale is a front-engine, five-door, five passenger compact luxury crossover SUV. The current 2nd generation GranTurismo was revealed online in 2022 and production commenced in April 2023. It comes with either a 3-litre V6 engine, shared with the MC20, or as an electrified version with 3 motors producing 761 hp under the Folgore trim.

The Maserati brothers were among the pioneers of motorsport, having participated in numerous races in the early 1920s. In 1922, the Maserati brothers were appointed to manage the racing activities of the Turin-based Diatto company, with Alfieri Maserati as their lead driver. The first Maserati-branded car was the 1926 Tipo 26, a racing car derived from the Diatto 30 Sport, taking a class victory and ninth place overall.

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