Michèle Mouton Among Several Audi Sport Family Members Honored at FIA Annual Prize-Giving in Rwanda

This week was the annual awards ceremony for the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, where champions of the various worldwide racing series are honored, along with other notable figures in the world of motorsport. Among those figures was rally legend Michèle Mouton and several other former and future Audi Sport drivers.

Kigali, Rwanda was the location, a first-ever FIA Awards hosted in Africa marking the organization’s 120th Anniversary. The event completes a week-long FIA General Assembly annually, and with series such as Formula 1, the World Rally Championship, the World Endurance Challenge, Formula E and many, many more under the governance of the FIA, this assures it’s always a star-studded evening filled with a who’s who in motorsport.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was crowned F1 champion, though more interesting to those watching the Audi brand was the crowning of the F2 champion. Newcomer (and recent Audi Sport F1 hire) Gabriel Bortoleto not only clinched the FIA Formula 2 driver’s trophy, he was also awarded FIA Rookie of the Year for outstanding performance in his first season of a new category. In winning this award, Bortoleto follows in the footsteps of Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri who are each previous Rookie of the Year award winners.

Having been hired by Sauber to join F1 next year and thus also an Audi Sport F1 driver for 2026, Bortoleto represents the future of Audi Sport. However, former Audi racing drivers and legends in their own right also received honors at the ceremony.

Congratulations to former Audi Le Mans driver André Lotterer and R8 LMS driver Laurens Vanthoor who, with current Porsche Motorsport teammate Kévin Estre, won the FIA World Endurance Driver’s Championship for their victorious season in the Porsche 963 in the Hypercar class. This marks Lotterer’s second FIA WEC championship and a first for Vanthoor and Estre. Vanthoor will continue with Porsche next year, while André Lotterer has announced he’ll be joining the fledgling hypercar program with Genesis.

Finally, it’s always thrilling to see Audi rally legend Michèle Mouton receiving an honor, in this case the inaugural FIA Lifetime Achievement Award. During her time at Audi, Michèle won the most races and was runner up for the World Rally Championship (WRC) in 1982, not to mention an all-out win at the non-FIA sanctioned Pike’s Peak International Hillclimb in 1985. She also won her class in her first and only 24 Hours of Le Mans, and remains to this day the only woman to have ever won a round (actually many rounds) of the WRC. More recently, Michèle served as a pioneer in founding the FIA’s Women in Motorsport activities, not to mention a vocal safety advocate in rally. Upon receiving her award from FIA President Ben Sulayem, Mouton received a heartfelt sanding ovation from the assembled crowd.