Laura Müller, Esteban Ocon's race engineer: "It's a bit sad to be the first woman in this position"

"Laura (Müller) is a great engineer. She is someone who is highly motivated, very committed and who has always dreamed of occupying this role in Formula 1. She has had to work very hard since she started in motorsport to get to this point and I am proud that we can work together." Esteban Ocon is full of praise when it comes to the woman who will now be whispering in his ear during Grand Prix weekends. Laura Müller was promoted to race engineer by Haas at the start of the season to accompany the French driver, who arrived fromAlpineThe collaboration between them has been going wonderfully since the beginning of the season.

“I first met Esteban in Abu Dhabi, then we worked together for the end-of-season tests, and then we also did some TPC tests (on cars that are at least two years old. Editor’s note). So we’ve already spent quite a bit of time together on the track. Then we did a training camp together, which was pretty cool. I think that allowed us to get to know each other better on a personal level.” says the German. "We spent a lot of time together this winter, training physically, but also doing team building to get to know each other better in quite stressful environments." Esteban Ocon told us a few weeks ago. "Then, we met at the 321 Perform center in Annecy for three days with Laura and Sacha Fouquet, who will be my performance engineer. We did a lot of different tests: physical, psychological, teamwork... We did some caving, which is a real test of self-management. These are things that are good for seeing what state we will be in when the stress rises and how we will be able to solve the problems we will encounter throughout the season. I think the three of us will form a very good team in this respect and I hope it will take us where we want to go."

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Laura Müller and Esteban Ocon have already established a good relationship at Haas

Esteban Ocon's integration at Haas has been very fast according to Laura Müller, thanks to the experience of the Frenchman, who already knows some people from his previous experiences at Force India, Renault/Alpine ou Mercedes, but also thanks to the good atmosphere that reigns at Haas. "As we're a British team (American actually, but based in Banbury, editor's note) with a British sense of humour, we tend to integrate people well. So that wasn't a problem." smiles the 33-year-old engineer, who went from performance engineer to racing engineer. This new challenge does not scare her, on the contrary. “It’s an interesting transition because the performance engineer role is already very demanding, but you stay focused on one car. As a race engineer, you have to step back, listen to a lot of people, organize a lot of things and make important decisions. Understanding how all these groups work, from the mechanics to the performance specialists, helps you make the best possible choices.” lists Laura Müller.

The German is the first woman to hold this role in Formula 1, which is an important step towards the feminisation of world motorsport..“Being the first female race engineer in F1 is actually a bit sad.” she nevertheless qualifies. “The main issue is a lack of representation. But if having my face on TV can inspire girls and young women to believe that they can achieve this goal too, then I would be very happy.”

Her presence in the paddock is combined with that of many women in key positions, which helps to show young women that they can reach the pinnacle of motorsport. On the other hand, the days of female drivers racing in F1 seem to be over and despite the establishment of the F1 Academy, no driver has been able to claim a seat in the premier category in recent years.

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