Some of the pivotal influences on an F1 driver’s weekend is the position performed by their race engineer.
After ending a four-year stint with Alpine, Esteban Ocon is within the technique of forming a bond with a model new race engineer having made the swap to Haas for the 2025 marketing campaign.
Ocon is working with Laura Mueller, who turned F1’s first feminine race engineer at first of this yr following a promotion which displays the game’s regular shift to changing into extra inclusive.
Midway by means of their first season and Ocon is relishing the history-making partnership.
“We’re totally up to the mark sure,” Ocon advised Crash.internet in an unique interview at Silverstone. “Laura is working tremendous onerous. I’m working very onerous alongside her to verify we’re as optimised as we are able to for the entire weekend.
“It’s been implausible to work together with her and on my facet of the storage, Laura is main lots of people. I’ve received Sacha [Fouquet], a younger efficiency engineer coming from F2, and Mike [Dawkins] who’s doing all of the mapping and so on. He’s been there for years and has tons of expertise and he’s an awesome addition. He compliments the entire thing which is nice.
“We will all the time do higher however in case you have a look at how we’ve taken the alternatives just lately, it’s actually been superior. We’ve seized all of the alternatives there have been after we had the chance to take it with the automobile, so it’s been good.”
Mueller’s decided character and hard-working nature has made her an excellent teammate for Ocon.
Ocon and Mueller have already fashioned a robust partnership
“She doesn’t depend hours,” the Frenchman explains. “She’s actually into the main points, like I’m. I may be very powerful at occasions on small little particulars, double checking issues.
“It’s not that I don’t belief folks, it’s simply I like to grasp myself why we’ve made these choices. There is no such thing as a hiding. If we expect it’s not attainable, we are going to say it, from one to a different.
“If Laura thinks I can enhance this sure factor, she is going to inform me. If I believe she will enhance a sure factor, I’ll inform her. There’s no judgement as a result of we’re in the identical boat collectively and we have to transfer ahead.
“It’s very robust and superb. However we have to take care of one another for the entire yr as a result of it’s a protracted season. Staying wholesome, having the vitality excessive is kind of essential.
“For instance, I used to be not feeling nice in Austria and now I believe Laura is just not feeling nice. We made certain she’s received the fitting nutritional vitamins and all this to verify she will undergo the weekend.
“It could occur in these double headers and also you meet so many individuals and stuff like that. Performing as soon as is an effective factor, however you must carry out 24 occasions. That’s a giant factor.”
Adapting to a brand new house, automobile and engine
In addition to constructing new relationships with Haas’ technical staff, Ocon is adjusting to a brand new atmosphere. In simply over six months on the American outfit, he’s already feeling totally at house.
“I’m feeling good,” he stated. “We’re nonetheless engaged on issues that are fairly essential for us however studying concerning the automobile each single weekend, engaged on the small particulars each time we exit and dealing tremendous properly with the staff total and it’s been actually robust.
‘I’m very a lot onboard with the entire staff and the ideas and the motivation that they’ve. It’s all very easy for racing. There’s just one thought behind it. It’s getting extra efficiency out of the automobile and fixing the problems and reacting to the conditions.
“I haven’t discovered that in each staff, I can let you know. It’s superb as a result of there may be not all of the politics greater than the precise sport. And this all the time needs to be the precedence and I’m pleased that is the case.”
Ocon has additionally needed to adapt to a brand new automobile – Haas’s VF-25 challenger. A current replace has helped treatment among the early bedding-in troubles Ocon confronted.
Ocon scored a finest results of fifth in China
“I’ve labored on discovering the place the problems have been and now with that new replace, hopefully it’s going to go within the path of improvement that I’ve noticed earlier within the yr,” he defined.
“So all of the issues that we’ve labored on are hopefully going to profit us any more. So I’m trying ahead to seeing if that’s going to assist us or not.”
Ocon is one among a number of drivers going by means of an adaptation course of this yr having switched groups over the winter.
On paper, it seems to have gone easily for Ocon, who sits tenth within the championship having racked up 23 of Haas’s 29 factors up to now in 2025. Nevertheless, he insists it has not all been plain-sailing.
“It hasn’t been straightforward for certain. There was a variety of new issues to be taught after I received into this staff,” he stated. “I believe we’ve performed a extremely good job by attempting to get each state of affairs, each little bit of element, the large ones out of sight fairly early. Then we labored on the smaller issues.
“What’s nonetheless troublesome is as a result of that automobile hasn’t been developed by me, that I discover some limitations in some issues that I’m not proud of, nonetheless on this second.
“So now we’re having a bundle which I hope will go in the fitting path in fixing the little steadiness drawback that I’ve particularly. The staff has been actually good at reacting to this.”
Ocon has additionally needed to adapt to Ferrari’s energy unit, having beforehand pushed with Mercedes and Renault engines.
“Total, all of us have the identical instruments, simply organised otherwise,” Ocon replied when requested concerning the problem of attending to grips with a brand new energy unit.
“Some issues are superb. Some issues are very completely different however total it’s been a giant step in the fitting path for me. I actually take pleasure in racing with this energy unit, I believe it’s a giant step ahead and provides you way more flexibility.
“I gained’t criticise the others as a result of that’s not the way in which I’m however I discovered issues I used to be very proud of as quickly as I joined the staff and issues which are straightforward to work with.”
