Haas appoint Mueller as F1's first woman race engineer

Haas have appointed Laura Mueller as the first woman race engineer in Formula One as part of a shake-up of their race operations team.

The German will work with newly recruited driver Esteban Ocon while another woman, Carine Cridelich, is set to join as head of strategy from Red Bull's Racing Bulls team.

US-based Haas are seeking to build on last season's seventh-placed finish in the constructors' championship with a new drivers' line-up that features Ocon and Oliver Bearman.

Mueller has been promoted from her role as performance engineer.

A race engineer works most closely with the driver on the set-up and running of their car and is the main link between a driver and the team on track through radio communications.

Haas team principle Ayao Komatsu said Mueller was the best candidate for the job.

"She's a pretty determined character," he said. "And then she's very hard-working. Her work ethic is really, really good."

He added: "If you look at how many female engineers we have in the office, it's definitely more than before. But it's not like I chose Laura because she's female.

"We don't care (about) nationality, gender –- it really doesn't matter because what matters is work. How you can fit into the team, how you can maximise the performance. I believe it is the right choice."

Cridelich will join Haas in March, ending a search for a head of strategy that Komatsu said has been going on "for a long, long time".

Francesco Nenci, who was most recently performance team leader on Audi's Dakar Rally project, is the new chief engineer while Mark Lowe will be sporting director.

Komatsu said tweaks to the trackside team were a "huge change" but added it was one of the "weakest areas last year".

Pre-season testing takes place in Bahrain from February 26 to 28 ahead of the Australian Grand Prix, on March 16.