Haas Makes History With Formula 1's First Female Race Engineer

Haas team principal Ayao Komatsu has announced key staff changes, including Laura Mueller's promotion to race engineer, making her the first female in Formula 1 history to hold this position.

Previously a performance engineer, Mueller will now serve as Esteban Ocon’s race engineer. Similarly, Ronan O'Hare has been promoted from performance engineer to race engineer for Oliver Bearman.

These internal moves are part of broader changes, particularly trackside, which Komatsu identified as a key area needing improvement during his first year in charge. He noted that as the car became more competitive, the team’s trackside operations emerged as a weak spot requiring huge changes to sustain progress.

Komatsu took a big step with 20 new hires in January, including several high-profile appointments. Carine Cridelich joins from VCARB, where she was the race strategy engineer. Francesco Nenci, who was Dakar performance team leader at Audi, has been named chief race engineer. In addition, Mark Lowe, formerly Haas’s operations and team manager, has rejoined as sporting director. Speaking on the internal restructuring, the team boss said:

"We were missing a chief race engineer last year because we couldn't find one. Francesco's got plenty of experience.

"In terms of race engineers, we decided to promote internally. Laura, who was under Ronan, they were both performance engineers.

"Ronan's got more experience than Laura. He was previously at Williams. Whereas Laura, Haas is the first Formula 1 team she's worked for.

"They've both got good potential, good determination, so we decided to promote internally because that sends a good message for everyone as well.

"Rather than going for big names from outside, to promote somebody who may not have the experience to start with, but has good potential, good work ethic, good communication, to support one another."

Praising Mueller, Komatsu revealed how her determination would make her compatible with Ocon as his race engineer. He added:

"She's a pretty determined character, she's very hard working, and her work ethic is really good. Her communication, the radio, etcetera, is very calm, very clear.

"In terms of looking at things personality wise, Esteban is a pretty determined character as well, so on that side, the driving force, their personalities match pretty well.

"And then 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 first answer, they stop, thinking, 'Ah, great. I found the solution' and move on.

"But when she finds the first solution, she knows there are 10 new questions to answer.

"So her determination is what impresses me the most, but then she's still quite young, still quite inexperienced, so needs lots of guidance and support.

"But with her work ethic, I think she can progress pretty quickly."