What makes Michele Mouton much more than a pioneer driver

A multiple World Rally Championship event winner, a history maker, a trailblazer for women in motorsport, and a pioneer for improving rally safety. Over a career spanning 50 years, there are few who can lay claim to having as big an impact on motorsport as Michele Mouton.

In every sense of the phrase, Mouton is one of motorsport’s game-changers as a driver she disrupted a male-dominated scene. But her passion and dedication to give back to rallying after her driving career is equally as impressive.

Mouton is one of life’s achievers, determined to succeed no matter what. But away from a competitive environment she is a much-loved and modest person who has time for everyone, and often shies away from waxing lyrical about what was a stunning motorsport career.

“In life you have to be open to all things, everything in life is possible,” said Mouton in Queen of Speed, a recent Emmy Award-winning documentary made about her life. “I love challenges and when someone says you are not able to achieve, I am like, ‘Bam, I want to show you that I can achieve it.’ If you play, you play to win.”

This determination was evident throughout a career that began as a co-driver when, aged 22 and hailing from the French Riviera town of Grasse, she joined friend Jean Taibi for the 1973 Monte Carlo Rally.

Mouton never had the desire to be a rally driver but had a love of speed and driving. Her father Pierre could see potential and offered Mouton a deal, paying for an Alpine A110 for a season. If she was good enough, the rallying would continue. Mouton guided the Alpine to 12th on her WRC debut at the Tour de Corse in 1974 before finishing seventh on the event the following year.

The result left her male rivals dumbfounded by her speed, convinced that she was cheating, but the car was stripped and found to be legal. “What was important for me was they [the male drivers] accepted me and treated me as a driver,” she recalls. “This has been my motivation all of the time.”

Mouton and Fabrizia Pons behind the wheel of their Audi Quattro on the 1983 San Remo Rally

Photo by: Motorsport Images

If there was anyone doubting Mouton’s speed, that was put to rest after claiming the two-litre prototype category, driving a Moynet LM75 at the 1975 Le Mans 24 Hours as part of an all-female crew, including Christine Dacremont and Marianne Hoepfner.

After outings in a Fiat 131 Abarth, Mouton’s career went to the next level when new player Audi called offering a contract – which she initially thought was a prank. Driving Audi’s revolutionary four-wheel-drive Quattro in 1981, with Hannu Mikkola as team-mate, Mouton initially suffered new-car teething issues, but when the WRC headed to Italy the stars aligned.

History was made by Mouton and new co-driver Fabrizia Pons on the mixed surface Sanremo rally as they became the first female crew to win a WRC round. Despite a brake problem whittling down a three-minute lead over Ari Vatanen to 32 seconds, Mouton powered to victory as Vatanen made an error on the asphalt final leg, which favoured his Ford Escort RS1800.

"It could have been much better if Michele had been world champion. This would have been unique in our history with a woman being world champion. I cannot see that ever happening anymore. I can only say sorry" Walter Rohrl

“From what I have read it was all about the first time a woman was winning,” sighs Mouton. “For me, it didn’t mean that. For me, it was important for my career and my mental game to be able to fight and to be able to cope with the pressure to win.”

Mouton had successfully awoken the motorsport world; she was now a household name with a fresh contract from Audi that had doubled in value. Despite the success, there was still a feeling among some of her peers that she didn’t belong competing in motorsport. Opel’s Walter Rohrl famously said: “Driving was a sport for men and I didn’t want to be the first man to lose against a girl.”

Rohrl and Mouton went head-to-head for the crown in 1982. Victories in Portugal, the notorious Acropolis in Greece, and Brazil left Mouton on the verge of the title. A win in the Ivory Coast would mean realistically a finish at the RAC Rally of Great Britain would earn a history-making accolade.

But sometimes fate can deal a difficult hand. On the eve of the Ivory Coast rally, Mouton received the news that her father had died. Devastated, she initially wanted to withdraw but was persuaded to continue by her mother.

The Audi driver kicks up some Finnish dust on the 1000 Lakes Rally in 1984

Wracked with grief, a resilient Mouton built up a huge one-hour-20-minute lead over Rohrl. It seemed the title was on. Then the Quattro developed an engine issue and, following a botched gearbox repair, Mouton chased Rohrl. A crash ended any hopes of glory, handing Rohrl a second world title.

“Between the WRC title and my father there is no comparison,” reflects Mouton. “For me it has been something I didn’t manage to do but I have no regrets at all, other than the death of my father. Of course I was unlucky, but rallying is like this. You have the ups and downs, and you should remember all the best times.”

Forty years later, another chapter was added to this story when Rohrl apologised to Mouton during the WRC’s half-century celebrations at Rally Portugal. “It could have been much better if Michele had been world champion,” stated Rohrl in front of Mouton in a press conference. “This would have been unique in our history with a woman being world champion. I cannot see that ever happening anymore. I can only say sorry.”

Arguably one of Mouton’s finest triumphs came outside of the WRC. To sign off her time at Audi, she returned to the famous Pikes Peak Hill Climb in 1985 after missing out on victory the previous year.

Behind the wheel of the 500bhp Group B Quattro S1 monster, Mouton, running without co-driver Pons to save weight, blitzed the times in practice, but incurred $150 and $500 fines for speeding in the paddock and for warming up the tyres, spraying marshals with gravel.

Mouton was banned from driving on public roads apart from the hillclimb itself, meaning she would have to forfeit a flying start for her run because the lead-up was not part of the course.

“I was so angry but I was so motivated,” she recalls. “The feeling was like, ‘Why is this woman coming to the middle of our country with a car like this Audi?’ They could not accept it. I didn’t care. Never I will lose this race. It’s impossible. This [penalty] gave me a boost like never in my life.”

Marianne Hoepfner and Christine Dacremont joined Mouton for Le Mans in 1975

Photo by: Motorsport Images

That boost was evident as Mouton channelled the anger to glide through the 156 gravel turns, smashing the course record by 13s to claim victory.

It wasn’t the last triumph. Audi felt it no longer needed her after Rohrl’s arrival at the team in 1984, so Peugeot team boss Jean Todt offered Mouton a drive in the German Rally Championship for 1986 – what would be her final year of competition. Six wins from eight rounds resulted in the title, having tamed the Group B 205 T16.

Mouton is a game-changer, but how good was she? Four-time world champion Juha Kankkunen reckons: “She was good. I remember when I was driving a Toyota Celica at the RAC Rally and she overtook me on a stage. Like everyone else who is a good WRC driver, she was working very hard, plus you had to be talented and born with it. She is part of the history of rally.”

"I’m happy with all we do with all the team at the FIA. Now I leave the floor to the younger ones, and I know they will continue very well" Michele Mouton

Eight-time world champion Sebastien Ogier is also full of admiration: “She is definitely the first stone on the path for women in motorsport, because there were other female drivers but none of them achieved the success she did at the top of a motorsport category like Michele.

“It is pretty impressive what she has done back then, and it is surprising that nobody yet has been a successor to what she achieved.”

Mouton continued to demonstrate a passion for motorsport after hanging up the helmet. Alongside then-partner Fredrik Johnsson, she co-founded the Race of Champions, organising this glitzy event, which has pitched the world’s best drivers from all disciplines against each other for 20 years.

It wasn’t long before Mouton’s second motorsport career, joining the FIA as its first Women in Motorsport Commission president in 2010, before becoming WRC category manager in 2011. In those roles Mouton worked tirelessly, while creating pathways for female drivers, notably through Girls on Track – Rising Stars programme that offered the prize of a seat in Ferrari’s Driver Academy.

Mouton remains among the inspirations for all-female crews in sportscar racing

“Today there is a lot of effort for equality and it is something you can see and feel everywhere, not only in competition but in the motorsport industry,” points out Mouton when asked about her work. “We want more women in motorsport and everywhere. The support we get from the professional teams is something I have been working on in the last 10 years and finally we have this.”

Mouton turned her attention to improving safety in the WRC in 2016, and filled the championship’s safety delegate role until last year, aged 73. In that time she implemented rules that have proved a success, making sure drivers, spectators and media are as safe as possible at all times.

A key development Mouton introduced was the ‘30-minute rule’, which ensures spectators and photographers must select their viewing points 30 minutes before the start of a stage and remain in position.

“I have big respect for this application because it is nice to give back to the sport and try to continue to help the sport that has given you so much,” admires Ogier. “It is nice that she kept working, even if we had some arguments over [road] starting positions and things like this!”

Even post-retirement, Mouton’s influence on motorsport is showing no signs of slowing down

Autosport was fortunate to join Mouton in the zero car at Rally Finland last year to see how she ensured stages are safe, and understand why this WRC winner enjoys life on the other side of the fence.

“I said yes but only if they let me do it how I want to do it,” explains Mouton. “I tried it and I have to say I loved it. It is an incredible challenge. I didn’t want to be like the police. I wanted to work with the organiser to collaborate with them and try to see together what kind of new measures we could put in place to improve safety because we have to improve. All of this work for me is very interesting.”

But, just as she knew it was time to stop driving, Mouton decided to call time on this role at the end of the year. Even so, this dedication has not gone unnoticed, and Mouton has built up an unprecedented level of respect within the rallying community.

Mouton also took a major role in improving safety in the WRC for the current generation

Photo by: Sutton Images

“The fact she wanted to give so much back really sets her apart,” enthuses Becs Williams, the WRC’s long-time television commentator. “She could have just left the sport and come back for a jolly and get wined and dined every now and then, but she decided to put the hard graft in and work for the FIA and bring something back to the championship.

“All the things she has achieved beyond the driving is something that should be really recognised.

“She is the very definition of a motorsport game-changer and not just for women in motorsport, but as a driver. She is always surprised that people want to know her story and in a way she is embarrassed to talk about what she achieved. But people do want to hear it as it’s such an amazing story.”