'It's increasingly women who are creating the stories in motor sport'

“This is such a great opportunity for me,” said Molly. “I am grateful to my Extreme E team, Veloce and its partner E.ON who have made this possible.  With my background in rallying [she was the youngest person – male or female – to win the Australian Rally Championship in 2016] I have had to adapt to the Extreme E format which has evolved to become more akin to rallycross.”

She is also feeling the pain of her footballing compatriots who lost to England in the semi-final of the Women’s FIFA World Cup and settled for fourth on Saturday. While she was competing in the third heat in Germany on Sunday, the England squad were busy losing to Spain, having transfixed the nation, creating icons and heroines for young women en route.

Female sport is picking up a head of steam. The world is opening up to football, rugby, cricket, netball; over the past four years the pace has stepped up. So where does motor sport sit in all of this?

Grassroots campaigns are looking to develop female talent from a young age. The not-for-profit initiative, More than Equal, is looking to identify young racers, develop a gender-specific training programme, with a view to finding the first female F1 champion. Girls on Track, backed by motor racing’s governing body, the FIA, is a karting competition to identify young racers.

Further up the ladder come the likes of F1 Academy and Extreme E, unlocking a route to the heavily-contested world of elite motor racing and offering new role models for girls with dreams of joining the grid.

There’s a widely-held view that racing needs to rethink its approach to developing women racers: the likes of More than Equal and Alpine’s Rac(H)er programme, are looking into optimising training for female athletes.

While there is no reason why men and women can’t compete as equals in motor sport, for Kevin Hansen, it’s also the differences between him and his female team-mate that have strengthened their partnership, which has returned two Extreme E race wins so far this season: like mixed doubles in tennis – the different attributes of the sexes have combined to create the best result.

“Molly is an extremely competitive driver and team-mate,” says Hansen, who also competes in World RX.  “She and I work so well together in Extreme E. We feed off each other. Molly will be more methodical and her approach is to pore over data and on-boards, she is the first to admit that she can sometimes over-think. It is fascinating to work together and to use each other’s strengths to create the ‘almost’ perfect pairing. It has been great to be able to step away and work with her in Germany without the stress of driving myself. I think we have made great progress.”

The weekend started well for Taylor, but a crash put her out of the third heat. Returning to the track, she missed out on a place in the final after being beaten by Extreme E rival Klara Andersson. Also on the RX2e grid was Mikaela Ahin-Kottulinsky, who had been in contention for the championship before a spin cost her a place in the final, as well as Zhang Yan, the first female Chinese driver to test in European Formula 3 and to race in Rallycross.

Taylor returns to action next month in Extreme E which, in 2021, offered her a chance to build on her rally success. She won the title in her first season with Rosberg Racing and has now brought that experience to Veloce — via a stint with Jenson Button‘s JBXE outfit. She joined at the end of the 2022 season when the young ‘disrupters’ in the paddock had been hurting and were last in the championship standings, immediately gelling with Hansen.

“I am working with people who really have no preconceptions about the female driver,” she says. “Some of the more established teams may not be quite so forward thinking,” she adds tactfully, “But the Veloce E.ON pairing is based on some fundamental pillars around equality and sustainable living and I have fitted in very well.

“With Kevin and his Swedish liberality, it is just the norm that a woman is working with him – his mother, Susann, won a European Rallycross event and is the Team Manager of Hansen World RX team! He certainly gets it.”