Formula E is mourning Cyril Blais, the respected Citroen team principal
A paddock united in grief
Formula E has lost one of its most respected figures. Cyril Blais, team principal of the Citroen Racing Formula E Team, died on Monday at the age of 46, and the tributes since have made clear just how widely he was admired across the championship.
A career built from the engineering floor up
Blais came up the hard way, through the engineering ranks. He began in 2007 as a Formula 3 race engineer at Manor Motorsport, then spent 2012 to 2019 at Arden Motorsport, rising from chief race engineer in GP3 to technical director overseeing the team's Formula 2 and Formula 3 programmes. He joined Mahindra Racing in 2019 before moving to the Monegasque squad that would become Maserati and later the Citroen Racing Formula E Team, run by Monaco Sports Group.
One of the paddock's most respected engineers
Within Formula E he served as race engineer to Lucas di Grassi and then Maximilian Gunther, before becoming chief engineer and ultimately team principal. Along the way he was named Engineer of the Year and became known as one of the most respected technicians in the championship. He also played a meaningful part in the development of the upcoming Gen4 cars, work that will outlive him on the grid.
Tributes from the team and the FIA
Beth Paretta, managing director of the Citroen Racing Formula E Team, said: "Cyril believed enormously in this team and we will honour him by racing with the same dedication and passion he instilled in us all." FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem said his "passion, determination and belief in his team were visible in everything he did," and spoke of the integrity he brought to the sport. No cause of death has been disclosed, and his family has asked for privacy.
Racing on in Tokyo
His death came just days before the Tokyo E-Prix. The team has confirmed it will race this weekend, and both Formula E and Citroen will honour his memory over the course of the event.
AutoNext Take
Motorsport is often told through drivers, but it is built by people like Cyril Blais: the engineers who work their way up from the garage floor, earn respect through competence rather than headlines, and quietly shape the cars everyone else celebrates. Losing someone of that calibre at 46 is desperately sad, and the warmth of the tributes says a great deal about the man. Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues.
