Heike began her time in motorsport as a Team Manager for Porsche Kremer Racing at the turn of the millennium. In the time since then, Heike has worked in Sales and Acquisitions at the Sauber Formula 1 Team, become the Head of Partnership Development at the Automobile Club de I’Ouest and is now the Head of Marketing and Communications at Citroën Racing in Formula E.
As you can see, Heike brings a wealth of experience to her role from not only the world of Formula 1, but GP3, the rebranded Formula 3 and the World Endurance Championship too.
It’s Race Week! got the chance to speak with Heike at the Formula E Season 12 Finale in London back in August and from that, we’re now able to put a spotlight on Heike in the third part of our Formula E Spotlight Series.
What does your role look like over a race weekend?
“Oh, that’s a very complex question. So we are in charge of taking care of partners of media. We invite a lot of media, for example, that we work with as Citroën and they are auto media for example, and we have them discover Formula E. So we take care of them and the markets. So Citroen UK for example is having a fan zone here exhibiting cars. So we, that’s something we, we liaise up front as well.”
What has been your standout moment of the season so far for you?
“Oh, certainly the victory in Mexico, that was crazy because we. Mexico already was a great atmosphere as such for the drivers and so on. And the fans are nice and great. But you know, we were coming back from the podium and we were clapping hands with the fans and the team members could have given interviews and autographs. That was, that was a very, very great moment.”
What is it about your role that you love so much?
“Everything really. I always wanted to work in motorsports and being behind the scene is what I always dreamt of. So being in such a versatile role is very interesting. You have so many different things to look after and make sure that this works.And to be there when you have all these emotions from the racetrack accidents, overtaking maneuvers and then hopefully a podium.”
What advice would you have for anyone looking to follow in your career path?
“I was speaking a little bit at the Girls on Track Activation here, which is really, really great one and at all races. And we always say you need, when you’re passionate, you go for it. You need to accept that you will probably be refused a lot of times if you’re looking to work at motorsport, for example, or probably at any other high level profession as well.
So first of all, not take it personally, I’ve been refused a lot of. Or you meet somebody and you end up where you are, that happens.
And the second one is that if you want to work in motor racing, for example, it’s not enough to say, well, I want to work in motor racing. You should be at the top of what you do in this. So if you’re social media, you should be really good at social media. If you’re an engineer, you should have really, you’re one of the best engineers. And when you’re the mechanic, you should be mechanically very, very good. It’s not sufficient to say, well, I’m a mechanic and I, I would love to work in motorsport. So we try to take the best people.
And in that case, the third advice is that if you can have a little bit of experience before you send your CV to a big company or something like volunteering for a private team, there are a lot of private race teams that look for support during a race weekend or before a race weekend.
For example, if you hand the hand there, then you already know that these people know about motorsport. The smaller championships on top of it, you get the chance to do a lot of things. So it’s a good education.”
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Check back here on It’s Race Week! soon for more spotlights from the Formula E Season 12 Finale in London.