Taylor aims to emulate Mouton

Mouton was part of the panel who selected Taylor and the Frenchwoman was adamant there was no preferential treatment.

"We don't have a woman in the Pirelli Star Driver just to have woman," said Mouton. "Molly is there because she deserves to be there. I'm not going to push to have woman for the sake of it, that was never how it was for me. We are competitors, that's the first thing and the only thing."

Taylor described meeting her life-long hero Mouton as 'surreal' and added that she was now desperate to follow her path.

"The PSD shoot-out in Spain was the first time I'd met her," said Taylor. "And to meet somebody you have idolised is just surreal. To have somebody like Michele watch what you are doing and to believe in you enough to select you for the programme it's more than I ever expected!

"What Michele did was phenomenal. I think she's a hero to people because of what she did and the era in which she did it - not just because she's a woman."

As a member of next year's Pirelli Star Driver scheme, Taylor will contest six WRC rounds in a Ford Fiesta R2. Beyond that, she is hoping to do more testing and more rallies outside of her WRC Academy-based programme.

"I moved from Australia to the UK with the goal of getting to the WRC," Taylor added. "So to know that I'll be doing that with the Pirelli Star Driver scheme makes everything worthwhile and the sacrifices worthwhile. I need to progress though. It's fantastic to have six rounds guaranteed, but I need to find more budget to do more testing."

Taylor said she felt her decision to contest the British Rally Championship was instrumental in her PSD success.

She added: "I moved over to do the BRC. As a domestic championship, it has a high international profile and the experience and competition and depth of competition in the championship has made me a better driver."

Taylor is still living in the UK and working at M-Sport.