Haas will make history this season when Laura Mueller becomes the voice in Esteban Ocon’s ear, the first female race engineer in Formula 1.

Mueller, who joined Haas in 2022, has been confirmed as Ocon’s race engineer for the Frenchman’s debut campaign as a Haas driver.

Laura Mueller the ‘correct choice’ as Esteban Ocon’s race engineer

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Haas will have an all-new driver pairing this season with Esteban Ocon joining Oliver Bearman at the Formula 1 team, replacing Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen.

But the driver line-up is only one of the big changes as Komatsu prepares for his second year in charge.

The team principal has confirmed Mueller as Ocon’s race engineer, adamant that her tenacious personality lines up well with Ocon’s.

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“Laura, she’s a pretty determined character, and she’s very hard-working,” Komatsu told select media including PlanetF1.com. “Her work ethic is really, really good. So she’s going to be Esteban’s race engineer.

“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. You know 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.

“She’s still quite young she’s still quite inexperienced, so really needs lots of guidance and support, but with that kind of work ethic, I think she can progress pretty quickly.”

Mueller promotion from performance engineer to race engineer is groundbreaking and marks a significant step in the representation of women in one of motorsport’s traditionally male-dominated areas.

But while Komatsu says there are more women coming through in Formula 1’s engineering departments, that Mueller is female did not factor in Haas’ decision. She is simply the best person for the job.

“I think so,” Komatsu said of female representation being on the rise. “If you see how engineers we got in office, female engineers, definitely more than before. But it’s not like I chose Laura because she’s female. You know, you just don’t care nationality, gender – really, really doesn’t matter.

“It just what matters is what you can offer, how you fit into the team, how you can maximise the performance. And then Laura happens to be I believe it’s a correct choice.”

Mueller joined Haas in 2022 with her journey into motorsport having begun a decade ago when she worked in various racing categories, including LMP2, LMP3, DTM, and GT3 before moving into Formula 1 with Haas.

Sharing details about her history with the team, Komatsu said: “She came in to do a simulator job. So she did the simulator and then some of the race events as we were rotating performance engineers last couple of years. When it comes to having a race engineer, she expressed her interest.

“In terms of her communication on the radio, etc, is very, very clear, very calm, very clear. But then when I knew that Esteban was coming, so there were lots of options but as well as technical side, the personality side is very important especially if you’re a race engineer.

“Then we saw Laura Esteban, the combination work really well. And again, I think they’re very pleased from what they experienced in Spain.”

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