Rally
Quick Career: Michele Mouton
Motorsport’s most successful female competitor almost became France’s first WRC champ.
Mouton was so close winning the 1982 title
© McKlein
Group B with its on-steroids like 500bhp-plus cars and maniacal fans remains the World Rally Championship’s most outrageous era and among the swashbuckling drivers right at the heart of it was the unique Michele Mouton. Not bad for someone who “never wanted to be a rally driver…”
Mouton almost won the WRC in 1982 with three wins in Audi’s Quattro, rather doing away with suggestions that women don’t have the physical strength to succeed at the top level. Bear in mind the Group B years witnessed some of motorsport history’s most brutal machines…
Not that Mouton ever played the sex card to her advantage. She told redbull.com. “I can see now the attraction because I was the only woman at the time in the championship. The press was very good with me, although I wouldn’t say I was cool with them. My character is not so cool! I am quite direct.
Mouton at the start of her career
© McKlein
“I would hate it when the journalist would come to me at the end of a rally and say ‘can you smile?’ I would say ‘OK, you go and find Blomqvist or Mikkola, ask them to smile and then you come back to me!’
“I remember Portugal on the startline – the guy is counting down 5-4-3 etc and this other guy open the door to touch me! A little bit too much, hein? But when you are in it you don’t think you are anyone special. You are just the driver.”
For Michele it was circumstance rather than ambition that set her on the way to future WRC stardom. “I never wanted or planned to be a rally driver. A friend was driving at amateur level, I went to watch him in Corsica and he didn’t get on with his co-driver so he asked me. It was pure chance. Then my father said ‘I know you like to drive. I will buy you a car and pay for one season. If you are good then you should get some results’.
Raw talent shone through in Fiat 131 Abarth
© McKlein
A Peugeot 204 was followed by an Alpine Renault 110 in 1973 and she was away. Promising results meant credibility as well as looks and led to sponsorship from French oil giant Elf. In 1977 Fiat France signed her and there were wins at national level, but then came the call from Audi to drive its innovative four-wheel-drive Quattro in 1981’s WRC.
Victory in San Remo 1981 was the first of four WRC wins for Mouton – the other three in Portugal, Brazil and Greece all came in ’82 as part of that title bid. In ’86 she joined Peugeot in one of its title-winning 205 T16s, under the team leadership of Jean Todt – now her boss at the FIA for whom she is WRC Manager and also head of its ‘Women & Motor Sport Commission’.
Mouton (L) with long-time co-driver Fabrizia Pons
© McKlein
The memories of Group remain vivid. “Of course I recall it clearly. It was fantastic but it’s like everything – you get used to dealing with it. You know how to do it.
“On asphalt it was really limit limit limit! Our reflexes were at the limit and the car was incredible.
“The last car I drove was the Peugeot in ‘86 with 530bhp. It really pushed you back. In comparison to the ‘81 Audi how much it had moved on was incredible. I don’t think the problem was on gravel, it was on asphalt. Maybe they should have reduced the tyre size. On asphalt the cars could snap away from you very suddenly…”