EXCLUSIVE: Haas’ Laura Mueller on settling in as Ocon’s race engineer and bringing visibility to women in engineering

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.

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.

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…

What’s changed since first becoming an F1 race engineer

“As with any job you kind of learn the basics, and then it takes some time to get used to everything,” Mueller responds when asked how different things feel now in her role compared to when she started in January 2025.

“Then 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.”

Mueller’s progression to her current position came after she first joined Haas back in 2022 when her role involved working in the simulator department before going on to become a performance engineer.

While acting as a race engineer incorporates a range of additional duties, Mueller felt that her prior experience – both in other categories before F1 and during her years at Haas – made the step into the job a smooth one.

“I've always wanted to become a race engineer,” she explains. “I'd been a race engineer in other series before I joined Haas, and within Haas the role transition was actually very easy.

“Becoming 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.

“I 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.”

Working with ‘very determined’ Ocon

Mueller and Ocon are now in their sophomore season of working together, with 2025 being a year of firsts for both – Mueller was new to her role, while Ocon had recently joined the team.

Given the sweeping regulation changes introduced for the 2026 season, Mueller admits that having the previous campaign to build their relationship was crucial.

“I 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,” she concedes.

“So [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.

“I 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.”

When Mueller’s appointment to Race Engineer was announced, Haas Team Principal Ayao Komatsu suggested that she and Ocon were a good personality match, as the French driver was also a “pretty determined character” like Mueller.

Quizzed on whether she agrees with this assessment – and how helpful it is to have such a relationship with the driver she is working with – Mueller smiles: “I think Ayao was very correct on that!

“Esteban is also a very determined guy – 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.

“I 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.”

The work of a race engineer that fans might not see

Komatsu has also spoken highly of Mueller’s work ethic, saying at the time of her promotion: “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.”

This is certainly an aspect of the role that Mueller enjoys, as she explains: “I definitely like the data analysis bit – 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.

“It 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.

“I also really enjoy planning the session and managing it, because you always make a plan and then it never goes the way you think –there'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.”

In terms of the main challenges that being a race engineer brings, she answers: “There are not really many things I don't like because it just changes every day – you have to sort out new problems every day.

“I 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.”

This list of responsibilities means that race engineers spend long days at the track – 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.

“With 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,” she says.

“This 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.

“Otherwise if you don't spend time looking at the data, we don't grow – 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.

“On the race weekend, we're obviously very operational – 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.”

Dealing with the scrutiny of being F1’s first female race engineer

Mueller’s job is one done by several others in the paddock, with every driver working alongside a race engineer – but the German’s 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?

“I 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,” she admits.

“I 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.

“I 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!”

While the publicity that comes with the role is not her favourite aspect, Mueller’s appointment marks another step in increasing visibility for women in engineering – 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.

As the day marks its 13th year, that level of visibility was not as high back when it started – and Mueller concedes that, given that this coincided with the point that she started to pursue a path in engineering, it felt “quite challenging” to get into such a career path back then.

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.

“I've only met her in passing once – I don't actually know much about her, but at the time I was like, ‘That's really cool, that's a woman in a very important role’,” says Mueller.

“But 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.

“So I don't love the attention, but if it brings visibility to women in engineering, it's obviously very important.”

Advice for the next generation of female engineers

At the Australian Grand Prix in March, Mueller joined Hannah Schmitz – Red Bull’s Head of Strategy – in becoming the first women to have an F1 circuit corner named after them, with Turn 6 dedicated to the two female engineers in celebration of International Women’s Day.

When quizzed on this – and whether there is a sense of community amongst women in engineering within the sport – Mueller explains: “I never met Hannah before, which is actually quite sad because we're very far away in the pit lane!

“I 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.

“I 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 – you don't have to know that you want to be a race engineer from when you're 14.

“So I think it's very important to show girls that even at 21, you can still be like, ‘This is what I want to do’ and get to do it. As it becomes easier and easier nowadays, it's also not so gruelling anymore to think about it.”

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.

“I think that's something I shared like a few years ago actually, which is just don't take s*** from anyone,” she responds. “If you want something, you have to go for it and not let anybody deter you from that path, because people will – it doesn't really matter what you want to do.

“I always wanted to get to F1, but before I even interviewed at Haas, I hadn't given up on it but I was like, ‘Maybe I'm just not gonna make it, and that's fine and I'll just do something else’, and I would have been happy with that.

“Don't have the dream for other people – have the dream for yourself, and make sure that you yourself want to do something and it's the right thing for you.”