Making history as he teams up with F1’s first-ever female race engineer, Esteban Ocon says Laura Mueller will be his “eagle eyes” and he cannot wait to work with her.

Haas confirmed last week that Mueller, who joined the team in 2022, will be Ocon’s race engineer in the Frenchman’s debut campaign as a Haas driver.

Esteban Ocon is working with Laura Mueller at Haas

The confirmation was a first, not just for Haas but for Formula 1 as the sport has never had a female race engineer as the voice in the driver’s ear.

Team boss Ayao Komatsu believes 33-year-old Mueller’s personality and her work ethic are well suited to Ocon’s.

“Laura, she’s a pretty determined character, and she’s very hard-working,” he told select media including PlanetF1.com.

“Her work ethic is really, really good. So she’s going to be Esteban’s race engineer.

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“And in terms of looking at the personality wise, Esteban is a pretty determined character as well so that’s that side. I think the driving force, I think that personality matches pretty well.

“And then what she’s really good at is so when she sees the problem, she digs deep and she doesn’t stop at the first answer.

“Some people when they find an answer, the first answer, they stop there, saying, ‘Oh, great, I found the solution, move on’.

“No, she has a good work ethic that when she finds the first solution, she knows that there’s 10 things now and you got new questions to answer. So her determination is the one that impressed me the most.”

The new pairing got to know one another at last year’s post-season test in Abu Dhabi where Ocon was free to join Haas having parted ways with Alpine even before the last race of the championship.

Ocon was out on track again at the Jerez circuit earlier this month in a TPC [Testing Previous Car] test with Haas in which Mueller was the voice in his ear.

“It’s great!” he told Canal+’s ‘La Boîte A Questions’ of the new partnership. “Laura is highly motivated and we’re getting to know each other really well.

“She’ll be my eagle eyes outside and she’ll be able to guide me on the radio, and I can’t wait to start the season and she can’t wait either.

“We’re super motivated.”

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