Get to know me: my motorsport work experiences

In 2020, I started studying journalism. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to achieve with this program, but I immediately knew I had a passion for social media. It began when I was young, creating fan accounts. Additionally, my passion for radio and TV was also huge.

When I became a Formula 1 fan in 2021, a secret dream started to grow—to one day work in Formula 1 media. In 2022, my school invited me and a few other students to take a behind-the-scenes look at the World Superbike.

We got an incredible behind-the-scenes experience! Just minutes before the start of the race, we were standing on the grid between all the drivers, and we were allowed to sit in the control room to see how the footage from the circuit was directed. We sat in the media center with all the journalists, listening to the drivers being interviewed, and we even got to talk to some journalists about their careers. This is a day I will never forget because it was here that I realized I wanted to work in motorsports. What an atmosphere, what passion, and what a weekend it was!

The day after the Dutch Grand Prix, I had to return to school. I was starting the final year of my journalism program. In the first few months, we had to create our own magazine. Still filled with adrenaline and passion from the Grand Prix the day before, I decided to write my magazine about dream jobs in motorsports.

This turned out to be a great choice, as it brought me closer to my dream. I conducted a lot of research, wrote many articles, and did some truly remarkable interviews!

For example, my feature story was an interview with former Formula 1 driver Jan Lammers. We had an incredibly long phone conversation about his career as an F1 driver and how he brought the Dutch Grand Prix back to the Netherlands as the sporting director of the Zandvoort circuit.

I also interviewed Tom Coronel about his long racing career, which is still ongoing. Additionally, I spoke with Nita Korhonen, the director of FIM Women. Beyond interviewing an experienced former F1 driver full of stories, I also spoke to a young karting talent who still has his entire career ahead of him. It was a magazine filled with stories and passion!

When I left Viaplay, I immediately missed creating Formula 1 content! I had been immersed in F1 24/7, and suddenly, it was gone. It was also the off-season, so there was no F1 at all. That's when I decided to launch Racingmedia Girls.

Before working at Viaplay, I already had the dream of having my own F1 website. At that time, a friend and I had started working on our own motorsport website, called Racingmedia. However, when I started working at Viaplay, I didn’t have the time to focus on it, so the project was put on hold.

Now that I had time again, I decided to rebrand Racingmedia into Racingmedia Girls. During my time at Viaplay, I had a lot of contact with companies like Racingnews365, Motorsport.com, and other F1 websites. I knew there was already a lot of competition, so I needed to come up with something unique. That’s when the idea came to focus on women, which is how the name Racingmedia Girls was born. Of course, men are also more than welcome in the community. We are a platform where both men and women can share their passion for the sport.

The passion for Racingmedia had been there for a few years, but in 2023, it truly came to life. In January 2024, our Instagram platform went live!

The Dutch Grand Prix has, as you can tell, a special meaning for me. This is where I truly decided to turn my hobby into my work.

• 2021: Zandvoort was the first race I ever watched.
• 2022: Zandvoort was the first GP I attended live.
• 2023: Zandvoort was a less exciting experience for me, as many colleagues lived my dream by being allowed in the paddock to work while I was stuck in Hilversum at the office, receiving all the amazing content my colleagues created. These were very long days of around 12 hours.
• 2024: But this year made everything right again when I was back in Zandvoort, unfortunately not in the paddock, but on the circuit! Here, I clearly saw the difference between the Dutch GP and the Belgian GP. If you want to know more, be sure to read my blog: "Pros and Cons of the Dutch GP."

But the best part of all was that I saw my favorite driver win right in front of me. What an experience!

And where I could proudly walk around in my own Formula 1 merchandise, something I truly couldn't have imagined a year ago. Check out Racingmediashop for more info!