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Ocon opens up on working with ‘very impressive’ new Race Engineer Laura Mueller at Haas
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Esteban Ocon has opened up on his experiences so far of working with new race engineer Laura Mueller at Haas, with the Frenchman praising her for the “very impressive” number of hours she puts in as they look to improve the performance of the car.
Ahead of Ocon’s switch to the team following his departure from Alpine at the end of 2024, it was announced that Mueller had been promoted from her position as Performance Engineer at Haas to Race Engineer, making her the first full-time female to take the role in F1.
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Team Principal Ayao Komatsu spoke at the time of Mueller’s “determined character”, a factor that he felt would match well with Ocon’s personality – and, during an appearance on the Beyond The Grid podcast, Ocon similarly hailed Mueller’s work ethic as he discussed how they have been working together so far.
“It's been great to work with Laura,” said Ocon. “She’s really a great engineer. She’s been having a lot of experience in a lot of different categories. She's done DTM, I've done DTM, so we have that point in common. But she did a lot of different categories, and her trajectory is very impressive.
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“She's awesome to work with. The amount of hours she puts in is very, very impressive. She doesn't count hours.”
Ocon went on to share an example of this that occurred during the Japanese Grand Prix, a weekend that proved to be a challenging one for the Haas driver.
“I remember in Suzuka, we had a difficult one, but we were still having meetings and debriefs because it was not the way we wanted to have the performance and she didn’t stand up to take a sandwich or drink for probably the whole day,” Ocon explained.
“She was like, ‘Esteban, I will probably go and take a food now because it's 7.30 or 8 in the evening.’ And I'm like, ‘You didn't eat yet?’ And she's like, ‘No’, because she didn't want to because she was flat-out with work.”
While his campaign so far has posed challenges like those faced at Suzuka, Ocon feels that he has been adapting well to his new environment at Haas following his five-year stint with Alpine.
Ocon has been impressed by Mueller's work ethic since they began working together
“First impression of the team is a big family,” the 28-year-old said. “This team really has welcomed me, in such a way that I just felt at home straight away. It’s really a fresh start for me. I feel that I'm integrating super well with everyone and everyone is hungry and motivated to deliver.
“They are proud of everything that they do when they do it. That's great because if you're not proud of the job you do, then there's no point doing it. It's honestly fantastic to be part of such a team and to be able, hopefully, to progress further this year.
“As an atmosphere, the family kind of feel, it's very much like the Force India days, but it doesn't feel small. This team feels like a big team in a way of what they are achieving. When we need something, it comes quicker than what I've been experiencing in the past.
“Ayao could tell you a lot of things about where we could improve, but it doesn't feel like we are small because the quality of the job that's been done is very impressive. It doesn't feel like we lack people because everybody's trying to accommodate me in the best way possible.”
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