Who is Michèle Mouton?
- therookiereporters
- 3 hours ago
- 2 min read
Michèle Mouton is a name you will have heard flying around the WRC scene in the 1980s but who is she and why was she so well known?
Childhood
Michèle never grew up in the world of motorsport rather residing on a rose and jasmine farm run by her family in France. She had primarily been focused on her skiing and dancing as an adolescent. Yet the turning point was being able to drive her father’s Citroëon 2CV when she was just 14 years old; she fell in love with the mechanics of the vehicle and became fascinated by the components of the car. However her rally career was put off until she was 21 years old due to her commitment to her law studies.
Rally Career
She first took part in a rally in 1972 with friend Jean Taibi asking her to assist at the Tour de Corse in a practice session. Her father recognised her talent and passion for racing and supported her dreams, transitioning from co-driving to full-time driving by buying Michèle an Alpine-Renault A110 ahead of the 1973 season. She went on to join Audi’s factory team and in 1981, won her first rally at Sanremo. Mouton went on to take 3 more wins the following year in Portugal, Brazil and Greece (she racked up 162 stage wins overall though) and that season she was the runner-up to the World Championship to Walter Röhrl.
Her tremendous efforts didn’t stop there and she went on to obliterate the Pikes Peak record by an astonishing 13 seconds. Not only was Michèle breaking records she was also demolishing stereotypes of women in motorsports. Her undeniable talent forced skeptics to acknowledge her outstanding performances in rally, destroying the stigma around female racers being inferior at the time. Michèle Mouton went on to aid in the safety of Rally as a safety delegate, still doing her part for the series even when not racing herself in it.
Article written by Alice Seager ©️Alice Seager 2026