Although the paddock is predominantly male, more and more women are occupying positions within the teams. Team managers, press officers, coordinators, hospitality managers and even data engineers, their number increases year after year.
Who are they ? What is their role? How do they experience being women in a man's world? We decided to meet them in order to start a series of portraits to present them to you.
Last July you were able to discover the interview with Mathilde Poncharal, press officer at Tech3. This article marked the foundations of the next ones that you will read, and we therefore invite you to rediscover it by going here.
To start the series, we stayed at Tech3 and met Anna-Katrin Noeller, who served as head of hospitality in 2018.
Can you quickly introduce yourself and explain to us what your work involves?
My name is Anna-Katrin Noeller, I am 33 years old and I am German. I am responsible for hospitality. My primary role is to take care of the guests so that they are well received. I start on Friday morning by collecting the list of names and I organize the schedule according to the number of guests and the day of their arrival. The most important day is Saturday because there are both practice sessions and qualifying. I notify the head chef and anticipate the number of lunches. I am also there if guests have any questions or special requests. The goal is really to make them feel very welcome.
Sometimes, their pass allows them to have access to the lap of the track. So I explain to them how it works and advise them on the best places to go.
How did you get into the paddock? Did you orient your studies in this direction?
No, not at all, it was by chance. I studied to work in a travel agency. I was on a work-study program for three years: I was going to school and working in an agency at the same time. At the end of these three years I graduated.
Marc VDS had a coordinator who took care of organizing trips and managing passes, but she had to stop and so they found themselves with a vacant position. One of my friends worked on the team and told them that she knew someone who could be a perfect fit for the job: me!
Indeed, my mother has a travel agency and I was working with her at the time. I had also worked as a waitress when I was younger and I knew how to manage relationships with people very well. So I had the double facet they were looking for: organizing trips and taking care of guests.
I received a call from my friend on Wednesday morning telling me that I had to be at Mugello the next morning to start work! Luckily, I was lucky enough to work at my mom's agency and be able to say, "Sorry, I have a huge opportunity, I have to leave right away." » In other circumstances, it would have been more complicated.
How long have you been doing this job?
I have been working in the paddock since 2010. Before, I was travel coordinator and VIP manager at Marc VDS. So I was already exercising a sort of coordination of guests within hospitality. 2018 is my first year at Tech3 but next year I will no longer be in the team because I am moving on to new projects.
Many people think that it is not easy to be a woman in this very masculine environment, sometimes even described as macho. How do you experience it as a woman? Do you really find it more difficult to work in MotoGP than a man?
I think it's getting better and better because more and more women are working here. For certain positions, it is indeed still complicated to succeed in convincing people of their skills and men are still privileged. But I honestly think that's changing. We see more women in charge of hospitality, data engineers, press officers… In the future there will be no more differences.
