Women could be just as good at racing cars as men. Although some types of fast driving still favor male physical abilities, many don’t. So why aren’t there more girl champions? One female driver who is trying to change that is Molly Taylor. She’s an Australian Rally champion, the most successful woman in Extreme E and a budding World Rallycross competitor as well. I talked to her before this weekend’s Rallycross racing in Portugal.
It’s not been an easy ride for Taylor, with Covid creating considerable career jeopardy after a promising start. “It has been such a roller coaster over my whole career, as motorsport always is,” she says. “In 2020, back in Australia, the pandemic started and Subaru, who I was rallying with, pulled out of the official program. At that point, things weren’t looking great. Then Extreme E began, and it has really changed the course of my career.”
Taylor started off in Extreme E with the Rosberg X Racing team, with which she won the first championship alongside Johan Kristoffersson in 2021. Then, after a single race with Jason Button’s JBXE team in 2022, she moved to Veloce Racing, where she has remained ever since.
Her first love has always been rallying, however. “I grew up as a third-generation rally driver,” she says. “My mom started driving for my granddad when she was 18. Her professional job is a codriver and she’s been five-time Australian Rally Champion. She’s still a co-driver and won the championship last year. My dad never made it to a professional level, but rallying was in my blood. I didn’t start until I was about 16. I had the opportunity to drive a car myself and realized what the fun is all about and started from there.”
Taylor was the first and only woman to win the 2016 Australian Rally Championship, and the youngest of either gender. But she sees Extreme E as the true pioneer for women in motorsport. “When they mandated the 50:50 split between men and women, teams were looking at who they wanted to drive for them,” she says. “On the male side, they could choose a nine-time World Rally Champion or a five-time World Rallycross champion. The best of the best was coming to be involved in Extreme E. On the female side, there were a lot of good female drivers but not with those scores on the board. That’s the reality.”
However, the faith the teams put into the Extreme E model, which gives men and women equal competitive weighting, has been a gamechanger. “For me and all the other female drivers, it really has been a massive opportunity to be able to get the investment in driving development, the seat time and the opportunity to be able to work and learn from other drivers,” says Taylor. But the drivers must still deliver. “Ultimately, we must go out and show that we deserve those seats. From the evolution of the series that has been fantastic because you can see the rate of progression has been enormous. It’s proof of concept. They took that risk at the start, and it’s paying off.”
Raising the profile of female drivers so they can obtain sponsorship has been an essential component of Extreme E’s approach. “Development is important, which is particularly expensive to access with motorsport,” says Taylor. Extreme E has been very successful in encouraging teams to help with the development of their female drivers. “We can see the influence that has. It’s going to be a few generations before it delivers the numbers that we need, but it’s the first and most influential step.”
There has been surprisingly little “anti-woke” pushback against the equal billing of female drivers in Extreme E. “That’s a good thing about motorsport,” says Taylor. “Once you put the helmet on, it’s about the job you do. The stopwatch doesn’t have a bias to who’s driving. You just focus on proving that you earned a spot. That’s something that I’ve learned from my mum because I grew up watching her compete. I didn’t go to the rallies as a five- or six-year-old and think, you know, that’s weird, she’s a female. I just thought that’s my mum. I thought it was normal. That’s had a massive influence on me because I could see how good she was. I could follow that as a role model.”
The women in Extreme E have improved immensely over the four years of the race series’ existence, proving that the equality isn’t just virtue signaling. “If the performances weren’t there, or that trajectory wasn’t being proven and shown, then maybe it would open the door to criticism,” says Taylor. “But I think the fact that we’re disproving that says a lot.”
Extreme E has led to other racing formats for Taylor, too. “Without Extreme E, I wouldn’t have had an international career again,” she says. “That’s led to the opportunities to compete in Dakar and do Rallycross. It’s been key to making all those things happen. In an ideal world, we wouldn’t need to set these formats in place, but that’s not the world we live in. These opportunities need to be created. The development needs to be put in so that in the future it can happen more organically.”
Taylor has been competing in World Rallycross’s RX2e all-electric support series, which is taking place in Portugal this weekend. “World RX is like a baptism of fire,” she says. “You only have one chance to get it right. The pressure is high. It’s probably the closest to Extreme E. It’s smoother in terms of the track. I’ve already done three complete Extreme E seasons, but to be getting close to the RX2e podium and fighting the final was a massive step for me. To be able to see that progression, you appreciate how difficult it is.”
Rallycross already has a good record of female drivers, without the format-based equality of Extreme E. “It’s doing fantastically well,” says Taylor. “Klara Andersson is up there fighting, earning her places on the podium. That’s not an easy feat in those fields. Rallycross is a very Scandinavian sport. If you look at the number of females involved in motorsport, Swedish numbers are disproportionately higher than other countries. The attitude over there and the opportunity seems to be a little bit ahead of where the rest of the world is at, but importantly, it’s showing what’s possible. Once girls can see what can be done it encourages more and then that momentum keeps feeding off it itself.”
There’s still a long way to go, however. “Access to resources is the major factor because you’re not born a good driver,” says Taylor. “You can have the aptitude for it. But we’re not developed as a human species to drive a car. It’s something that you must learn. It’s not like soccer where if you really love it, you can go out and put in more practice than everyone else in your own time. You need to have access to cars, teams, and tracks, and that’s expensive.”
Taylor has benefited from the support she gets from the E.ON Veloce Racing team, which spans both Extreme E and Rallycross. “Having supportive partners is fundamental,” she says. “I can access more seat time, proving my development and increasing my visibility. My family background meant I had a female role model from day one. There’s no one telling young girls you can’t do this, but if you turn on the TV and you don’t see yourself, young kids are receptive to that. If we can keep increasing the visibility, keep increasing that reach, keep shining a spotlight on the success that we are having and keep supporting that success, that will flow on. It’s not going to be a quick thing, but the more we can do that, the more young girls we’re going to have coming to motorcars and go karting tracks.”
As the news broke yesterday that Extreme E was reviewing its remaining races of the season, which may not happen at all now, the great results the series has accomplished looked under threat. However, Molly Taylor will continue to compete for E.ON Veloce Racing as Extreme E transitions to become hydrogen-powered Extreme H next season. “As a driver that’s been involved in Extreme E for a long time, I’m obviously excited to learn more about Extreme H as the championship develops,” she says. “We can use this technology in conjunction with the electric motors to be the first ones doing something else new. We’re not just developing one technology and refining that. We’re always looking for the next thing. That’s what has made it so exciting to be part of Extreme E and in the future, Extreme H. Happy days!”
