Haas Names First Female Race Engineer In Formula 1 History

The Formula 1 season is just around the corner, and Haas — the only American team on the grid for one more season until Cadillac joins the series — has announced a big addition to the pitwall.

The team announced that they have hired Laura Mueller to serve as the race engineer for Esteban Ocon making her the first woman to serve in that role.

Congratulations to Mueller! That's a big deal, and it's a position that is somewhat public-facing as the race engineer is the person you typically hear talking to drivers during broadcasts.

"She's a pretty determined character," team boss Ayao Komatsu said, per Formula1.com. "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."

Picking the right engineer for Ocon is going to be critical. He has a reputation for butting heads with teammates, and he'll be the defacto lead driver alongside talented rookie Ollie Bearman.

It's going to be important to have the right voice in his ear if things aren't going well, and Mueller will be that voice.

And don't think for a second that this is a DEI move.

"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," Komatsu said.

"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."

Mueller previously served as a performance engineer, and her promotion is part of a series of changes to the Haas pitwall, something that Komatsu said was a weakness last year despite a solid car for most of the year.

 "The more and more the car became competitive, it kind of exposed it more," Komatsu said. "In terms of execution, if we say we should have finished P6, but we didn't. Part of it, we left too many points on the table from the trackside operation. So, we really needed to step up on that one."

Haas finished P7 in the Constructors' Standings last season, and we'll see if they can improve on that in 2025.