Esteban Ocon, who joins Haas after ending his collaboration with Alpine one race early, revealed to Canal+F1 that Laura Mueller will work alongside him as his race engineer. A German already part of the team as a simulation performance engineer, she will be the first woman to hold the role of race engineer in Formula 1.
This marks a significant step for her, as she has been battling misogyny in motorsport for years. Just a few months ago, she spoke to a newspaper in her country about the challenges women face in a male-dominated world. “I have experienced some bad things,” she said, referring to her time in the German DTM category as a race engineer for driver Sophia Flörsch. She explained how women in the field are constantly underestimated.
“Misogyny is still there. Subtly. You constantly have to prove yourself and be better than the men around you.” In the same interview, she also shared her childhood ambitions, revealing her dream of becoming a Formula 1 driver and being “the first woman to compete against Michael Schumacher.”
Since 1976, when Lella Lombardi last drove a Formula 1 car, no woman has been behind the wheel in the sport’s top tier. Regarding the possibility of change, Mueller has no doubts: “There are definitely enough women who could do it. Within the next five years, there will be a woman fast enough for Formula 1.”
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