Alexandra Schieren did not plan to work in motorsport. She was looking for a job in Germany, saw an ad in the newspaper for an assistant role in a PR department, applied because it was a car manufacturer, and discovered on her first day that it was Toyota’s World Rally Championship team. She had no idea at the time what a rally car was or how it differed from a Formula 1 car. That was 25 years ago.
Since then she has worked across the top levels of motorsport PR, including with Formula 1 teams and as an FIA media delegate, a role that puts her at the intersection of the sport’s governing body, the teams, the drivers and the world’s media at every grand prix weekend.
The conversation covers what that job actually involves — managing access, handling media requests across multiple languages and time zones, dealing with the unexpected at race pace, and navigating the politics of a sport where every team, every driver and every broadcaster has competing interests. Alexandra talks about the moments where nothing can be controlled and you simply have to keep moving, and about what separates the people who last in this industry from those who do not.
She also grew up about ten kilometres from where the Schumacher brothers grew up, knew of them before they were famous, and chose Michael Schumacher as the driver she would most want to spend time with — not for the seven world championships but for the stories she suspects he has never told publicly.
Her top three races as a destination: Singapore for the atmosphere of a night race in a city that never sleeps, Montreal for the island circuit and its unique crowd, and Suzuka because there is nothing else like it anywhere in the world.