In the competitive high-speed, high-stakes world of motorsports, New Zealander Jennifer Chau helps ensure things run smoothly off-the-track. Ellen Falconer caught up with her at the Melbourne Grand Prix in March.

It’s a baking hot day in Melbourne, and although it’s only day one of the four-day Grand Prix weekend, the grass of Albert Park is already turning into dust under the intense foot traffic, which includes a jarring mix of the ultra wealthy, Aussie bogans and F1 girlies in ribbons and vintage Ferrari jackets.

The Melbourne Grand Prix takes place on a temporary street circuit that sees cars wind their way around the Albert Park lake with picturesque views of the city’s skyline. Not much on-track action happens on day one so the park’s atmosphere is relatively calm, except for the groups of uniformed school children running to check things off on their curriculum-approved treasure hunt and super fans getting in early at the merch tents.

While the Formula1 (F1) paddock is carefully guarded with electronic gates and people in suits wearing earpieces, the sheen of glamour slips at the back of the paddock and it’s only a yellow rope from Bunnings and a woman in High Vis that separates the million-dollar Formula2 (F2) and Formula3 (F3) cars from the general public.

It’s here that I find New Zealander Jennifer Chau, who works as team coordinator for the Dutch team MP Motorsport that is competing in the Formula2 (F2) and Formula3 (F3) series this weekend. She leads the way through the labyrinthine paddock to the F2 garages on the pit lane, past towers of Pirelli tires, stopping to confirm details with a driver’s manager.

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Dressed in a black MP Motorsport zip-up jacket with sponsor names dotted across the shoulders, Chau’s vibe is tidy, efficient, friendly and approachable. She’s only been on track for a day but has already discovered that the guy checking accreditation in the catering building is from the same Auckland suburb she is.

This year the F2 cars have been moved into the trackside pit garages, much to the displeasure of the local Supercar drivers, who have been bumped off the track to the temporary marquees just behind. The Supercars race past with a crack so loud it has me wincing and reaching for the neon foam earplugs I bought for $2. Chau sheepishly admits she gets told off by the older mechanics for not wearing ear protection, but says she’s gotten used to the noise.

Inside MP Motorsport’s garage, a strict no-photography policy is in place while the cars have their guts on display as the mechanics make final adjustments ahead of the afternoon’s test run. One of the team’s drivers, Franco Colaptino, leans over his car, discussing details with his race engineer. 

Drivers as young as 16 compete in F3, an entry-level professional series where they are supported to learn about race craft and car control before transitioning to the more competitive environment of F2, and for the very best, ultimately into F1. 

F1 has had a boom in popularity, largely due to Netflix’s Drive to Survive where viewers get to know the egos, talent and money that go into getting a four-wheeled rocketship onto the track. The narrative-driven series was created to attract new audiences, and basically overnight transformed the sport from an old-money, Old Spice niche into a mainstream phenomenon. 

Although the viewing numbers or the sponsorship money of F1 haven’t yet trickled down to F2 and F3, fans follow along to see who might be the next generation’s Lewis Hamilton. The cars in F2 and F3 are much less powerful, but the wail of their engines resonate through Melbourne even seven kilometres away. And unlike F1 drivers, half of whom live in Monaco to avoid paying taxes on their multi-millions (real cute, guys), F2 and F3 drivers pay for their seat on the grid.

“We don’t pay any drivers to drive,” Chau says. “A lot of people don’t realise that – they think we pay them. But even up to this level, they all pay to drive. Unless they have enough sponsorship that they’ve arranged.” Chau is in awe of the costs a driver needs to come up with to race. “F2 and F3 are in the millions, for sure. It’s a lot of money. Crazy amounts of money.”

With that much on the line, Chau’s responsibility of ensuring everything goes smoothly for the team is even more important. But, just like a race, with that many literal moving parts there is always something that is bound to go wrong. Days before leaving for Melbourne, one of Chau’s teammates’ car was broken into and his passport stolen, resulting in a tonne of paperwork and urgent emails sent to get a replacement visa and passport in time.

As MP Motorsport’s team coordinator, it’s Chau’s job to book flights and accommodation, manage driver requests, media and guest accreditation and, importantly, ensure the snack table is fully stocked. Chau points out the Tim Tams and Party Pack lollies that she got specifically for the weekend, to introduce her teammates to the Antipodean snacks she misses living in Amsterdam.

MP Motorsport’s factory is just south of Rotterdam, and Chau’s mostly Europe-based colleagues fly in and out for races, or to work from the factory as needed. This year there were 26 MP Motorsport staff in Melbourne, landing just a couple of days earlier. 

But if Chau’s jet-lagged, there’s no sign of it. She deftly juggles replying to messages on her phone, warmly greeting former MP drivers with a hug and handling requests on the fly while answering my questions. 

In 2023 she travelled to about 24 races, where she was away for at least four days per trip, meaning she spent five to six months of the year on the road. Chau is the first to admit that she needs to work on improving her work/life balance, but with a job that requires being away from home for half of the year, it’s a challenge. “I think it’s because I love it that I work hard at it. I used to be in denial,” she says. “I’m working on trying to be more balanced. I know I should be, and my partner tells me I should be. 

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“The different time zones make it a lot more difficult. I'll wake up at 2am, and everyone is awake back at the factory. I have a bad habit of looking at my phone – there’s all these messages so you start talking to people. It’s my downfall. But it is because I love my job that I work some crazy hours.”

Chau’s partner also works at MP Motorsport, as an engineer on the team’s cars that compete in the Spanish F4 championship, so he’s on the road a lot too. In an attempt to have a bit more focus on the ‘life’ side, Chau got a dog, an adorable dachshund named Sergio who gets to travel with the couple to the Spanish F4 races where things are a bit more relaxed than the weekends attached to an F1 race. 

While she has fond childhood memories of going to the Pukekohe racetrack with her dad, it wasn’t until Chau joined the Auckland University’s formula student team alongside her partner that she got a taste of what it would be like working in the industry. Because she was studying business and marketing, Chau worked on the team’s sponsorship and events, which led to selling merchandise for the Toyota Racing Series (TRS; now the Formula Regional Oceania Championship), NZ’s formula racing series that takes place over the summer months. 

After uni, Chau and her partner travelled to the US on a working holiday visa and began working in motorsport there, returning to NZ every summer to work in the TRS. Chau worked her way up to event manager at TRS one year, building a strong network of friends and colleagues along the way, which eventually led to work in the UK, then MP Motorsport, where she has been for six years. 

While some might expect Chau to be gunning for a role in Formula1, she’s content with where she’s at, and it’s where she plans to stay.

“Everyone thinks F1 would be the next natural step but the difference between F1 is so high because with so many people, your job is a lot more specialised. There is one [person] that just does hotels, and one that just does PR. What I like about the feeder series is that I am in charge of a lot more broader things.

“You could move into something like team manager or something, but I feel like if I were to do that it would make my work/life balance worse,” she says, laughing.

We’ve moved into a stuffy portable building, the team’s makeshift office space for the weekend, away from the burning rubber and shrill tyre guns of the pit lane. Everything down to the printer is transported to each race, the teams unloading like a circus in every city, in and out in less than a week.

With so much time spent travelling, and so much pressure on the young drivers behind the wheel, Chau feels a great responsibility to support them as they work towards their dream of racing in F1. Her time with MP has allowed Chau to witness the development of drivers who started with the team in her first year and are now close to moving into F1. 

“It's so nice to see them grow. They don’t necessarily stay with MP for the whole time, but I’m still really happy for them even if they’re not with our team any more. Their success makes me happy because I feel like I've known them for so long.”

One driver who stands out is Kiwi driver Liam Lawson, who is predicted to get a seat in F1 next year after he impressed everyone when he had to fill in for Aussie Daniel Ricciardo for five races in 2023. Lawson drove in F3 for MP Motorsport in 2019, before moving to another team the following year.

“I was quite close with Liam and I still talk to his mum sometimes. Especially when he got into F1, I sent her a message,” says Chau. “I think it was having a Kiwi to connect with and her being on the other side of the world. [Lawson] was so young then; I was looking out for her son and we connected and it was quite sweet. Everyone [at MP Motorsport] was happy when he got into F1 last year – me especially because he was a Kiwi.”

Chau says being able to stay cool-headed is an essential trait for anyone wanting to work in motorsports. “My job is just to put out fires most of the time. There’s always something that’s going to go wrong. You have to be quick on your feet and stay calm, especially if there is a lot going on at once – you have to be able to prioritise.”

When she first joined the team there were only a few women working in the F2 and F3 paddocks across all teams, but that’s changed in recent years – even if, she says, women tend to get pigeon-holed into logistics and coordination roles like her own. But it’s a start.

As Chau runs off to attend to yet another request, her passion for motorsport and commitment to her team is evident in every meticulous detail in the team’s garages, from the overstocked fridges down to the cars that arrived in Melbourne on time and in one piece. In the high-speed, high-stakes world of motorsports, Chau's role as team coordinator is the cornerstone of the operation, helping to steer her team towards the finish line.

Footnote: Unfortunately for the team, MP Motorsport didn’t do well in Melbourne with all three of their F3 drivers finishing out of the top 10. In F2, one of their cars finished the race on the back of a truck after a crash, and the other was disqualified for a technical infringement. Since then, the team's drivers have won races and had podium finishes, bringing MP Motorsport up to 2nd and 6th place in the F2 and F3 championships respectively.