It has been around 18 months since Laura Mueller was promoted into the position of Race Engineer to Esteban Ocon at Haas, an appointment that made her the first woman in Formula 1 to move into this high-profile role.<\/p>\n
In the time since, the German has settled into her job and experienced both highs and lows on the track along the way, with her achievements also seeing her receive the honour of having a corner named after her at the Australian Grand Prix earlier this year.<\/p>\n
In celebration of International Women in Engineering Day, F1.com sat down with Mueller to discuss her journey to becoming a race engineer and how she handled the scrutiny that came with it, the development of her working relationship with Ocon, and the advice she would give to other women and girls hoping to pursue a similar path\u2026<\/p>\n
What\u2019s changed since first becoming an F1 race engineer<\/p>\n
\u201cAs with any job you kind of learn the basics, and then it takes some time to get used to everything,\u201d Mueller responds when asked how different things feel now in her role compared to when she started in January 2025.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen at some point, when you’ve got all your bases covered, you can branch out and start learning new things. I think what’s changed is just that I’ve added some more learnings to my repertoire, and I feel a bit more safe in the sessions and I’m not forgetting anything anymore. I can just focus on more performance stuff now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mueller\u2019s progression to her current position came after she first joined Haas<\/a> back in 2022 when her role involved working in the simulator department before going on to become a performance engineer.<\/p>\n While acting as a race engineer incorporates a range of additional duties, Mueller felt that her prior experience \u2013 both in other categories before F1 and during her years at Haas \u2013 made the step into the job a smooth one.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve always wanted to become a race engineer,\u201d she explains. \u201cI’d been a race engineer in other series before I joined Haas, and within Haas the role transition was actually very easy.<\/p>\n \u201cBecoming a race engineer within an environment I already knew, I actually thought was a big advantage because I already knew the people I needed to go to, the questions I needed to ask, and just how the team works.<\/p>\n \u201cI think versus going to another team and becoming race engineer there, it was much easier for me because I didn’t have to learn the team anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Working with \u2018very determined\u2019 Ocon<\/p>\n Mueller and Ocon<\/a> are now in their sophomore season of working together, with 2025 being a year of firsts for both \u2013 Mueller was new to her role, while Ocon had recently joined the team.<\/p>\n Given the sweeping regulation changes introduced for the 2026 season, Mueller admits that having the previous campaign to build their relationship was crucial.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that was actually very vital because so many new things have appeared this year that you need to worry about, with all the deployment and everything,\u201d she concedes.<\/p>\n \u201cSo [it was important] for me to feel safe in my job and know what I’m doing a bit more, and also for Esteban to know the team and how everything works, who he needs to go to for things. And then I understand what he needs in which moment, which just takes so much capacity away from everything so you can focus on the things that have changed this year.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it was very good timing for both of us to start on a car that we knew, with regulations that we knew, and get to know each other before we started this year of madness.\u201d<\/p>\n When Mueller\u2019s appointment to Race Engineer was announced<\/a>, Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu<\/a> suggested that she and Ocon were a good personality match, as the French driver was also a \u201cpretty determined character\u201d like Mueller.<\/p>\n Quizzed on whether she agrees with this assessment \u2013 and how helpful it is to have such a relationship with the driver she is working with \u2013 Mueller smiles: \u201cI think Ayao was very correct on that!<\/p>\n \u201cEsteban is also a very determined guy \u2013 he definitely pushes for what he wants and needs until he gets it, and because obviously I want the best for my car and my driver, I will push for that as well.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it helps him to know that he doesn’t need to push for it because I’m there and he trusts me, that I have the same character and push for everything. So that definitely works very well, and he also sees that he doesn’t need to worry that things aren’t done because I’m the same as him and I always want to do the best I can.\u201d<\/p>\n The work of a race engineer that fans might not see<\/p>\n Komatsu has also spoken highly of Mueller\u2019s work ethic, saying at the time of her promotion: \u201cWhat she’s really good at is, when she sees a problem, she digs deep, and she doesn’t stop at the first answer.<\/p>\n \u201cSome people, when they find the answer, first answer, they stop there. They think, \u2018Oh, great, I found the solution, move on\u2019. 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.\u201d<\/p>\n This is certainly an aspect of the role that Mueller enjoys, as she explains: \u201cI definitely like the data analysis bit \u2013 it has always been something I really enjoy. I like the investigative nature of it, and just to go deep and find out why something isn’t working.<\/p>\n \u201cIt kind of falls away a bit as a race engineer because you have all these kind of managerial responsibilities, but post-event I still look at data a lot so I still enjoy that.<\/p>\n \u201cI also really enjoy planning the session and managing it, because you always make a plan and then it never goes the way you think \u2013there’s a red flag, or the car isn’t working as you wanted or something like that, and I really like the dynamic nature of that.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of the main challenges that being a race engineer brings, she answers: \u201cThere are not really many things I don’t like because it just changes every day \u2013 you have to sort out new problems every day.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the worst thing is just making sure that the driver is at the seat fit at the right time and this kind of stuff, like just the little babysitting things, but other than that I’m really happy with it.\u201d<\/p>\n This list of responsibilities means that race engineers spend long days at the track \u2013 but while fans might see glimpses of Mueller on camera during a Grand Prix weekend, many are less likely to be familiar with the work that she carries out in the gaps between events.<\/p>\n \u201cWith back-to-back races it’s a bit different, but if you have a week in-between, you spend quite a bit of time reviewing what have you done on the weekend, did it work, what do you do going forward,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is also really important for the designers to know what are your main limitations, what do they need to work on for upgrades or something like that, so there’s always a constant feedback between us.<\/p>\n \u201cOtherwise if you don’t spend time looking at the data, we don’t grow \u2013 we don’t improve our performance. We’re a small team, so also us who are track side, we have to put in a lot of work to move forward.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the race weekend, we’re obviously very operational \u2013 you have to get that prepared because you don’t have a lot of time to think about stuff anymore. Then with back-to-back racing, you work longer days to still review a bit from the last weekend but prepare for the next one. In the best case, you’ve already prepared for example for Barcelona before Monaco, but that’s very optimistic.\u201d<\/p>\n Dealing with the scrutiny of being F1\u2019s first female race engineer<\/p>\n Mueller\u2019s job is one done by several others in the paddock, with every driver working alongside a race engineer \u2013 but the German\u2019s promotion into the position came with additional scrutiny, given that she was the first female to move into the role in Formula 1. How did she deal with this extra attention?<\/p>\n \u201cI obviously knew I was going to be the first female race engineer, but I kind of thought there was going to be some article on Autosport in a little corner somewhere,\u201d she admits.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn’t really didn’t expect all that attention and it freaked me out a little bit, especially because before I was even announced I got so many messages from people who just read an article or something.<\/p>\n \u201cI don’t really enjoy the attention too much and I just wanted to get on with my job, which is why Stu [Morrison, Director of Communications at Haas] and everybody kind of facilitated me to focus on that at least for the first half of last year, which was really nice. I just want to do my job!\u201d<\/p>\n While the publicity that comes with the role is not her favourite aspect, Mueller\u2019s appointment marks another step in increasing visibility for women in engineering \u2013 something that International Women in Engineering Day acts to promote, with the event continuing to shine a light on the work being done by female engineers across the globe.<\/p>\n As the day marks its 13th year, that level of visibility was not as high back when it started \u2013 and Mueller concedes that, given that this coincided with the point that she started to pursue a path in engineering, it felt \u201cquite challenging\u201d to get into such a career path back then.<\/p>\n However, she names Leena Gade as someone she looked up to, the Briton being the first female race engineer to win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Audi in 2011.<\/p>\n \u201cI’ve only met her in passing once \u2013 I don’t actually know much about her, but at the time I was like, \u2018That’s really cool, that’s a woman in a very important role\u2019,\u201d says Mueller.<\/p>\n \u201cBut other than that there weren’t many people to look up to, so I think it’s really good now that we have all these women in F1 that you can see on TV, you can hear on TV, you see on the podium and all this stuff, which I think for me 13 years ago would have been really important.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I don’t love the attention, but if it brings visibility to women in engineering, it’s obviously very important.\u201d<\/p>\n Advice for the next generation of female engineers<\/p>\n At the Australian Grand Prix in March, Mueller joined Hannah Schmitz \u2013 Red Bull<\/a>\u2019s Head of Strategy \u2013 in becoming the first women to have an F1 circuit corner named after them, with Turn 6 dedicated to the two female engineers<\/a> in celebration of International Women\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n When quizzed on this \u2013 and whether there is a sense of community amongst women in engineering within the sport \u2013 Mueller explains: \u201cI never met Hannah before, which is actually quite sad because we’re very far away in the pit lane!<\/p>\n \u201cI think there was mostly a community in both of us not loving the attention, but I think we both felt very proud about it, to have a corner named after you. I got a little picture frame which I hung up at home so that was really cool, and I really liked how it just brings the attention on the job, on the possibilities and all this stuff.<\/p>\n \u201cI really like talking to young women and girls about the fact that you don’t have to have everything figured out when you’re younger \u2013 you don’t have to know that you want to be a race engineer from when you’re 14.<\/p>\n \u201cSo I think it’s very important to show girls that even at 21, you can still be like, \u2018This is what I want to do\u2019 and get to do it. As it becomes easier and easier nowadays, it’s also not so gruelling anymore to think about it.\u201d<\/p>\n As such, it seems fitting to ask Mueller about the words of advice she would share with other women and girls who might want to follow a similar career path to hers.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that’s something I shared like a few years ago actually, which is just don’t take s*** from anyone,\u201d she responds. \u201cIf you want something, you have to go for it and not let anybody deter you from that path, because people will \u2013 it doesn’t really matter what you want to do.<\/p>\n \u201cI always wanted to get to F1, but before I even interviewed at Haas, I hadn’t given up on it but I was like, \u2018Maybe I’m just not gonna make it, and that’s fine and I’ll just do something else\u2019, and I would have been happy with that.<\/p>\n \u201cDon’t have the dream for other people \u2013 have the dream for yourself, and make sure that you yourself want to do something and it’s the right thing for you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been around 18 months since Laura Mueller was promoted into the position of Race Engineer to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-755573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}