Andretti Formula E’s Race Team Coordinator, Alex Melville, was in a reflective frame of mind at the Berlin EPrix earlier this month. Joining Andretti Global in December 2021 after a stint at Red Bull Racing as Travel Coordinator and Race Office Administrator in 2016, means that she now has a decade long career in motorsport.
But the roots of her fascination with the sport go much, much deeper. It runs in her family, as her mum Carol herself has been a familiar face in F1, FIA WEC and throughout the industry for 30 years herself and currently works for the manufacturing and engineering giant, Multimatic.
While Carol is clearly a focal point for Alex, it was actually her grandfather Gus, who triggered the racing fever for a young Alex, as he did for Carol too when she was growing up.
“It stemmed from my granddad actually, who was always a massive motorsport fan, which then itself led to my mum wanting to work in it,” Melville tells Formula E Notebook.
“Mum has pretty much done it her whole life, and then growing up in the bubble of motorsport, I kind of knew that’s always what I wanted to do. So, it was just a mission from leaving school, really, to find a way in eventually and then land the job.”
She managed to accomplish those initial goals, but Alex did it the hard way. Before getting her first real break in the industry, she used to take holiday from her then day job to go and work in hospitality during race weekends for the renowned MSL Global events company in 2013.
“I don’t think I used holiday for anything else pretty much,” she recalls. “I remember the first Le Mans event. I think I did 111 hours. I remember thinking, well, it’s not going to get worse than this. If I start with the horrendous hours and being on your feet all day then it can’t get any tougher.
“Actually, I always say the hospitality workers have it the worst. They’re first in, last out. They don’t get to sit down, they’re always standing. People are never happy, and no one comes and tells them they’re doing a good job. But you’ll get told if you’re not doing a good job. It’s definitely one of the roles that I think is very underappreciated in motorsport. And these are the people that are actually looking after everybody else.”
But Melville (pictured above as a kid with broadcaster Louise Goodman) is appreciated at Andretti Global where she has been an integral team member since 2021 after that five-year stint at Red Bull.
After being based in Banbury, Andretti Global’s new facility at Silverstone opened in late 2024, and while there is structure in working hours away from the races, Melville is well versed in the flat-out nature of race weekends.
“When I’m back at the office, probably nine to five becomes pretty regular, but it’s always preparing for the next race, getting things ready for next leg of the season and even looking to the following season too,” she says.
With just under half of this Formula E season remaining, and with logistical and team preparations being considered for Gen4 which will kick off in December, the time at head office is heavy on planning and preparation for Andretti’s future.
The fast-paced nature of Formula E is intense and demanding, something which Melville relishes.
“When you come to a race anything can kind of be thrown out as there are different challenges, perhaps with accreditation not working, or any silly thing really,” she says. “Sometimes though if all is going well it’s more about just being on hand for when things do start to go wrong, guests or drivers need something, etc.
Adaptability is something “you have to be,” according to Melville.
“You have to be aware that you’re looking after between 30 and 40 people. They all have different needs and expectations, and things could go wrong for all of them at the same time. And then you’ve got to try and prioritise and go from there.
“So, it’s just about being flexible. Sometimes you’ll have people ringing you at two o’clock in the morning because they can’t get into the hotel all of a sudden, or different things like that. With this job, you’ve got to be available all the time on race weekends.”
When Andretti Global confirmed a multi-season partnership with TWG AI in January 2026, as the 12th season of Formula E was already underway, a whole set of tweaks needing to be carried out.
“With all the team kit changing, that obviously came with some challenges,” details Melville. “Normally you start preparing the team kit six months to a year in advance, whereas here between races we had to do a complete rebrand.
“Normally you have a sampling process, but we didn’t have time. Through PDF docs we had to try and judge, does that look alright? We weren’t completely happy by the time we got to Miami, so even now we’re still tweaking the team kit a little.”
Speaking to FEN at the Berlin EPrix in May, Melville added that “We’ve actually changed the uniform again this weekend. I’m sure you might not notice on the outside, but we’ve been working on the yellow, doing things like that.
“When you do swap mid-season, you have to keep checking every day. Is everyone in the right kit? Is everyone on brand with the right sponsors showing? But I think we look good.”
Five years with Andretti Global has come with numerous challenges, but Melville relishes these and absorbs the stress. “I actually quite like the challenge and a lot of the times when things do go wrong at the time it’s stressful, but you’ll always find a solution. There is always a solution to everything.
“Obviously the flood disaster in Valencia was really tough,” she adds. “Formula E had to find somewhere new for us to go within 48 hours and then it was readjusting and rebooking everything within 24 hours for the team to go out the next day. We moved on quite quickly.”
But reflecting on the highlights of her career so far, Andretti’s 2023 championship triumph with Jake Dennis is obviously a clear high spot.
“I think that was the best day of most people’s lives in this team,” she remembers. “That was obviously incredible, we loved that. It didn’t feel real at the time. You don’t quite realise how amazing it was until you look back. It was a very happy time.”
Now into her second decade in the sport, what advice would she now give to a 2016 spec Melville as she was entering motorsport. “I would say ‘don’t stress it’ll come. If you’re always just working hard, putting yourself in the right places, talking to the right people, I think you’ll have to be unlucky for it not to pay off eventually.’
“And, just keep persevering,” she adds. “It’ll come around eventually. I remember even when I was in F1, the reason I left was because I wasn’t getting to travel, and even then I didn’t think I’d ever get a job going to race and that maybe this was the best that I was ever going to get. It will always evolve. You’ll always get there.”
