Maserati boss has failure philosophy after learning from "most difficult time"

28 July 2023 , 14:43

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James Rossiter has led Maserati MSG Racing as team principal

Maserati MSG Racing's team principal James Rossiter claims a "very successful season" is made up of 90% failure and just 10% success.

The former racer took on the top job with the Monegasque team this season and has overseen a challenging year after several changes heading into Gen3. Rossiter though has been keen to maximise the learnings from their setbacks and is wise to how rare winning can be.

Formula E has seen seven different drivers win across the 14 rounds thus far - one of which was Maserarti's Max Gunther in Jakarta. Rossiter knows that seeing the chequered flag first doesn't come round all that often but knows how to define success in motorsport.

He told Mirror Sport : "I'm extremely competitive so I don't take losing well, but it is the way you use defeat as a learning process and to motivate. In any sport unless you're the best, you're 90% failure, 10% success - and that is a very successful season. You always have to deal with defeat, it is what you can take from it and re-focus. I definitely found that we learned the most from defeat this year."

Maserati's line-up of Gunther and Edoardo Mortara, who has been challenging for the Formula E title in each of the last two seasons, bought home just three points in the opening six rounds

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The German though claimed success in Indonesia, Maserati's first win in motorsport since the 1957 German Grand Prix in Formula 1. Gunther has finished in the top six in seven of the last eight races, including four podiums, but Rossiter accepts the former Nissan star wasn't always driving at the top of his game.

Max Gunther claimed the team's only win of the year in Jakarta

"Let's be perfectly clear I think at the beginning of the season Max certainly wasn't fulfilling his potential and I had to learn Max, learn his character, understand what made him tick," he said. "I had to work very hard on turning his speed into results and consistency, that's been the biggest challenge with Max and we've managed to achieve that on his side."

Maserati, who have come close to championship success when they raced under the Rokit Venturi name, have endured a lull this season. Rossiter though is determined to stick by those alongside him having seen the outfit respond after what he claims was "definitely the most difficult time he's been through".

The 39-year-old said: "Always believe in the people you have. it is very easy to blame people for the failures of a group, but if you stick together and you motivate the entire team you can dig yourself out of any situation."

Watch the 2023 Hankook London E-Prix on Saturday 29 July & Sunday 30 July live on Channel 4 at 17:00 BST.

Samuel Meade