F1 News: Haas appoint Mueller as F1’s first female race engineer

The Moneygram Haas Formula 1 team have promoted Laura Mueller to the role of Race Engineer for new driver Esteban Ocon.

Mueller headlines the raft of changes, earning promotion from her role as Performance Engineer to become the first full-time female to take on the high-profile position of Race Engineer.

Haas boss Ayao Komatsu said Mueller, who joined Haas in 2022 working in the simulator department, is the right fit for Ocon, who joins from Alpine.

“She’s a pretty determined character,” said Komatsu. “And then she’s very hardworking. Her work ethic is really, really good.

“She’s going to be Esteban’s Race Engineer. In terms of looking at it personality-wise, Esteban is a pretty determined character as well. So that side, I think the driving force, I think that personality matches pretty well.

“And then what she’s really good at is, when she sees a problem, she digs deep, and she doesn’t stop at the first answer. Some people, when they find the answer, first answer, they stop there. They think, ‘Oh, great, I found the solution, move on’.

“She has a good work ethic such that when she finds the first solution, she knows that there’s 10 things, now you’ve got new questions to answer.

“Her determination is the one that impresses me the most.”

“If you look at how many female engineers we have in the office, it’s definitely more than before. But it’s not like I chose Laura because she’s female.

“We don’t care [about] nationality, gender – it really doesn’t matter because what matters is work. How you can fit into the team, how you can maximize the performance. I believe it is the right choice.”

Carine Cridelich set to join as Head of Strategy from rivals Racing Bulls as part of a wider strengthening of the structure.

Ronan O’Hare has also been promoted from his role as Performance Engineer to Race Engineer for Bearman, who stood-in for Kevin Magnussen as a race driver twice in 2023 and has already embedded himself well with the team.

Mark Lowe returns to Haas in the newly-created role of Sporting Director, while long-time Team Manager Pete Crolla has departed.