Formula 1 names a corner after prominent women engineers Laura K. Müller and Hannah Schmitz
Women's participation, recognition and celebration in motorsports is constantly increasing, and now, Formula 1 has named a corner after women for the first time in history.
Marking International Women's Day on March 8, Turn 6 at Melbourne Australia's Albert Park Grand Prix Circuit celebrates two of the sport's most prominent women engineers, Laura K. Müller and Hannah Schmitz.
The corner is dedicated to the work of Laura who became F1's first full-time female race engineer when Haas appointed her ahead of the 2025 season, and Hannah, head of race strategy at Oracle Red Bull Racing.
Many circuits hold a longstanding tradition of naming corners after influential people in the world of motorsport.
The initiative, called In Her Corner, includes a dedicated grandstand and an Innovation Hub at Turn 6, aimed at inspiring students and fans to take on engineering careers. In Her Corner is a partnership between Engineers Australia and the Australian Grand Prix Corporation with the aim of inspiring the next generation of engineers.
The Australian Grand Prix is one of the sport's most-attended events. In 2025, around 465,498 fans attended across F1's four days in Melbourne.
Finding the next generation of talent, on and off track
At F1, women make up over a third of the sport's overall workforce, according to F1's Gender Pay Gap Report 2025. Meanwhile, Alpine sees its F1 team workforce with around 12% women, cited in 2022. Clearly, there's still room for some great advancement - and it's happening.
Among its wider activity supporting gender equality, F1 supports women through the F1 Academy, an all-women driver category launched in 2023 designed to provide, mentorship, and funding to prepare young female drivers for higher levels of motorsport, with a goal to have a woman in F1 by 2030.
F1 teams support the academy, with many sponsoring drivers, while increased, targeted media and on-track representation aims to drive female participation.
F1 Academy Managing Director is the ever impressive Susie Wolff.
Make sure you get hold of her book, DRIVEN, if you're after a superbly inspirational read.
"Before every race, there’s a moment of quiet: focus, anticipation, a belief that all the work has led to this. Driven is my story of reaching that point—from a young girl racing karts in Scotland, to carving out a place in the world of motorsports, and now helping others do the same through F1 Academy. Driven is about resilience and ambition, but also doubt—what it takes to find your place in a world that wasn’t built for you, and how you keep moving forward when the odds say you shouldn’t. Along the way, I share what life inside the F1 paddock is really like: the intensity of race weekends, the power dynamics behind the scenes, and the lessons in leadership I’ve learned from some of the fastest people on earth," says Susie Wolff.
Order your copy of DRIVEN and enjoy the journey!