Haas appointed Laura Mueller as the first woman racing engineer in Formula 1 as part of an upheaval of their team of racing operations. The German will work with the newly recruited pilot Esteban Ocon while another woman, Carine Cridelich, should join the head of the Racing Bulls team of Red Bull. The Haas based in the United States are looking to rely on the seventh place of last season in the manufacturers’ championship with a new range of pilots which includes Ocon and Oliver Bearman. Mueller was promoted to his role as a performance engineer.
A racing engineer works the most closely with the pilot on the configuration and operation of his car and is the main link between a driver and the team on the right track via Radio Communications.
The principle of the Haas team, Ayao Komatsu, said that Mueller was the best candidate for the position.
“He is a fairly determined character,” he said. “And then she works very hard. Her work ethics are really very good.”
He added: “If you look at how many women engineers we have at the office, it is certainly more than before. But it is not as if I had chosen Laura because she is a woman.
“We do not care (nationality) of nationality, gender – it does not really matter because what matters is the work. How you can integrate into the team, how you can maximize performance. I think it’s the right choice.”
Cridelich will join Haas in March, ending a search for the strategy which, according to Komatsu, has been “for a very, long”.
Francesco Nenci, who was recently the performance team leader on the Dakar Rally project in Audi, is the new chief engineer while Mark Lowe will be sports director.
Komatsu said that the track team adjustments were a “huge change”, but added that it was one of the “weakest areas last year”.
Pre-season tests take place in Bahrain from February 26 to 28 before the Australian Grand Prix on March 16.
(With the exception of the title, this story has not been published by NDTV staff and is published from a unionized flow.)
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