Maserati's competitive motorsport history began in the 1920s and 1930s, long before the formal World Championship era. The company was very successful in pre-war Grand Prix racing, fielding a variety of cars with 4, 6, 8, and 16 cylinders. A notable early triumph came at the Indianapolis 500, which Maserati won in both 1939 and 1940 with Wilbur Shaw driving the 8CTF.
When motor racing resumed after World War II, Maserati was ready with established designs. The 1938 Maserati 4CL voiturette — developed before the war — proved competitive enough to race immediately after hostilities ended. Its continued success encouraged Maserati to develop the design further, leading to the 1948 Maserati 4CLT, one of the first cars constructed to the new Formula One regulations introduced in 1946.
Maserati designed two principal Formula One cars during the championship era: the 4CLT and the Maserati 250F. The A6GCM, originally designed as a Formula Two car, was also pressed into Formula One service.
The Maserati 250F became the dominant expression of Maserati's works Formula One effort and one of the most celebrated Grand Prix cars of the 1950s. Juan Manuel Fangio drove it to victory in the 1957 World Championship of Drivers, and Fangio had also won part of the 1954 World Championship using a Maserati.
Despite the 250F remaining a competitive machine, Maserati was forced to withdraw the factory team from Formula One in 1958 due to financial difficulties. The withdrawal did not immediately end the car's competitive life: privateers continued to race 250Fs until 1960, a testament to the design's durability and performance.
Following the withdrawal of the factory programme, Maserati reinvented its Formula One role as an engine supplier during the 1960s. The company provided engines to the British constructor Cooper as well as several smaller teams.
The most successful product of the Cooper–Maserati partnership was the Cooper T81, powered by a Maserati V12 engine. The car produced two Formula One victories: John Surtees won the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix, and Pedro Rodríguez won the 1967 South African Grand Prix driving the same specification of car.
Maserati's return to top-level single-seater racing came in an entirely different technological context. On 10 January 2022, Maserati announced it would compete in Formula E beginning in the 2022–23 Formula E World Championship, partnering with the Monaco Sports Group as Maserati MSG Racing. The programme yielded its first Formula E victory on 4 June 2023, when Maximilian Günther won the 2023 Jakarta ePrix. Günther also won the first Tokyo ePrix on 30 March 2024.
Maserati's Formula One story is defined by the contrast between the ambition of the factory programme in the 1950s and the financial realities that ended it prematurely. The 250F in particular remains iconic: a car good enough to win the Drivers' Championship that was abandoned not because it was obsolete, but because the company could no longer afford to race it. The engine-supply relationship with Cooper in the 1960s extended the Maserati name in Formula One into the turbo-transition era, before the brand's motorsport focus shifted to sports cars for several decades. The Formula E entry marks a third distinct chapter, pairing one of Italy's oldest racing names with fully electric competition.
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