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Haas has made a small piece of Formula 1 history in appointing the championship's first female race engineer.
Laura Mueller will step up from her previous role as performance engineer to work with Esteban Ocon during his first year with the squad.
The race engineer position is one of the most senior roles on each car, and one of the most important on the pitwall - because they act as a critical interface between the driver and the team.
Their job is to ensure that car performance is maximised - providing the best tools to the driver through their work with other engineers and mechanics, and also helping deliver feedback from the cockpit in a way that means directions for improvement can be clearly pinpointed.
As part of a refresh of Haas's trackside operations, team boss Ayao Komatsu explained that Mueller had been picked because he felt that her personality and work ethic were the perfect fit for Ocon.
"She's a pretty determined character," said Komatsu. "Esteban is a pretty determined character as well, so I think the driving force is that I think the personalities match pretty well.
"What she's really good at is when she sees a problem, she digs deep, and she doesn't stop at the first answer.
"Some people, when they find the first answer, they stop there and say: 'I found the solution, now move on'.
"[Laura] has a good work ethic, such that when she finds the first solution, she knows that there's 10 more new questions to answer.
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"Her determination is the thing that impresses me the most.
"Of course she's still quite young, still quite inexperienced, so really needs lots of guidance and support. But with that kind of work ethic. I think she can progress pretty quickly."
Mueller is a graduate of the Technical University of Munich, and spent her initial career rising through the engineering ranks in junior single-seaters, the DTM and sportscars.
She originally joined Haas in 2022 to help work on the simulator side of things, but was quickly moved into a performance engineering role.
With Mueller having impressed from the off, and eager to step up to the race engineer role, Komatsu had no hesitation in thinking she is ready for the challenge.
"When it came to being a race engineer, of course she expressed an interest," said Komatsu.
"In terms of her communication on the radio, it is very, very clear; very calm, very clear.
"So then when I knew Esteban was coming, I had a lot of options, but the personality side was very important. I knew the combination would work really well and I think the drivers are very pleased from what they experienced in Spain [where Ocon tested an older Haas under the Testing Previous Cars rule]."
Mueller's appointment, allied to Haas choosing Carine Cridelich as head of strategy, is proof of more female talent coming through to take senior roles at F1 teams.
Komatsu said he had witnessed a growing diversity across job roles in grand prix racing - and especially in engineering, which had been very male dominated in the past.
"If you look at how many female engineers we have in our offices, it's definitely more than before," he said.
"But it's not like I chose Laura because she's female. You just don't care about nationality, nor gender - that really does not matter.
"What matters is what you can offer, how you fit into the team, and how you can maximise the performance."
