When Albert Park announced that Turn Six would be renamed ‘In Her Corner’, paddock chatter and social threads — from engineering rooms to f1 fantasy forums — shifted toward a single idea: visibility. The renaming, timed to coincide with International Women’s Day, placed two working engineers at the centre of a gesture that links on-track history with the careers of women who built it.
What the renaming is, and who it honours
The corner at the Melbourne circuit will carry the name ‘In Her Corner’ in tribute to Laura Mueller and Hannah Schmitz. The initiative is a collaboration between Engineers Australia and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation and aims to inspire a next generation to consider careers in engineering. Laura Mueller is the race engineer at Haas for driver Esteban Ocon and became the first female engineer to take on the full‑time race engineer role in 2025. Hannah Schmitz is the Head of Race Strategy at Red Bull Racing and has worked with the team since 2009; she has been promoted to Head of Race Strategy for 2026.
Organisers framed the renaming as a visible acknowledgement. Laura Mueller, race engineer at Haas for Esteban Ocon, said, “The ‘In Her Corner’ initiative promotes the importance of ‘if you can see it, you can be it, ‘ so the more we can all do to shine a light on the overall achievement of women in engineering is a great thing. ” The decision marks the first time a corner of a race track has been named after a woman.
F1 Fantasy and the visibility problem it echoes
For decades the presence of women in top roles has been intermittent but meaningful. Historic drivers such as Maria Teresa de Filippis and Maria Grazia ‘Lella’ Lombardi are part of that lineage: de Filippis became the first female driver to compete in a World Championship race in 1958, and Lombardi scored half a point in a World Championship Grand Prix. Their stories are often invoked when contemporary moves toward recognition are debated.
Today, the conversation stretches beyond drivers to engineering and strategy roles. Hannah Schmitz’s career — beginning with a placement in 2009 and spanning operations rooms and the pit wall across many seasons — illustrates a different path: technical, strategic and organisational. Schmitz describes the evolution of her role as one that moves from making the ‘final call’ on race weekends to building the department that supports those decisions, reflecting a shift from individual visibility to institutional influence.
At the same time, programmes aimed at broadening the pipeline are growing. F1 ACADEMY is entering its fourth year and runs activities such as F1 ACADEMY Discover Your Drive to create entry points at grassroots level for girls and women interested in motorsport. Those initiatives are part of a larger effort to move visibility into sustained participation.
What this gesture changes — and what it does not
Renaming a corner does not by itself solve structural barriers, but it signals a change in what people see on a track map and who is named in the paddock’s geography. The initiative ties symbolic recognition to concrete roles: Mueller’s position at Haas, Schmitz’s promotion at Red Bull Racing, and institutional programmes that aim to expand access.
For supporters, the act of naming becomes a talking point that feeds into broader efforts: recruitment programmes, academy pathways and conversations about retention. For sceptics, the gesture must be matched by measurable steps in hiring, promotion and programme funding. The formal partnership between Engineers Australia and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation was presented as one way to connect symbolism with outreach.
Back at Albert Park, the corner’s new name will be read by TV graphics, race programmes and touring fans — and it will be referenced whenever drivers clip that apex. For those who have followed motorsport from Maria Teresa de Filippis and Lella Lombardi through the modern era of strategists and engineers, the moment is both a commemoration and a prompt to ask what comes next for development pathways and culture.
As fans update their lineups and discuss race strategy on message boards and f1 fantasy leagues, the renaming is an invitation: to see the people behind the calls, to follow the careers of engineers who shape race outcomes, and to measure whether a symbolic corner can help widen the road for those who follow.
