Haas F1's Laura Mueller Becomes 1st Full-Time Female Race Engineer in Sport's History
January 21, 2025
With the start of the 2025 F1 season on the horizon, the Haas team has made a historic hire by naming Laura Mueller a race engineer.
Per The Athletic's Luke Smith, Haas confirmed Mueller's hiring that will make her the first full-time female race engineer in F1 history.
Mueller will work with Esteban Ocon for the upcoming season.
Ocon is entering his first season as a Haas driver after signing a multiyear deal with the team in July 2024 to partner with Ollie Bearman.
Smith noted Ocon and Mueller gained some experience working together in December during the Yas Marina Circuit test in Abu Dhabi.
Mueller's promotion was part of a wider reshuffle and restructure throughout the Haas Racing. Team principal Ayao Komatsu announced the changes were part of a "huge change" designed to improve their competitiveness on the track in 2025.
"We left too many points on the table from the trackside operations. So, we really needed to step up on that one," Komatsu said.
Haas originally hired Mueller in 2022 as a performance engineer.
"She's a pretty determined character," Komatsu said to describe Mueller. "And then she's very hardworking. Her work ethic is really, really good."
The race engineer serves as the main point of contact between the driver and the team. They are in the headset talking to them and guiding them through the race, providing feedback on ways to improve and offering insights into how other drives are navigating the track.
Ocon is set to begin his ninth full season competing in F1. He has finished in the top 15 in the overall standings every year since 2020, including a career-best eighth-place showing in 2022. His lone F1 victory thus far was at the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Mueller's resume includes a stint as a race engineer in 2020 with the DragonSpeed team in the European Le Mans Series, as well as time in Germany with Abt Sportsline and the Manthey Racing team.
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