Most of you will know Simon Taylor as the man behind Motor Sport‘s ‘Lunch With’ series – one that has included 125 lunch-based interviews with the sport’s biggest names. He first sat down for ‘Lunch With’ in June 2006. The subject was Max Mosley and the pair ate at the Café de Paris where the then-president of the FIA ate “a tiny lobster mousse, green salad, still water and an espresso”.
As the issues rolled on Simon had lunch with a huge array of names from Tyler Alexander to Alex Wurz via Ross Brawn, Richard Petty, Ron Dennis and the late Chris Amon.
After 10 years of lunches Simon has decided to call it a day (he’ll still write for Motor Sport, but he’s stepping down from Lunch With) and to honour what Damien Smith describes as “the greatest series of interviews in motor sport publishing” we decided to sit the man himself down for a bite to eat. Want to know what all these big names were like to interview? Enjoy.
Laurent Mekies arrives as Red Bull F1 team principal with a series of immediate challenges to solve and long-term issues to tackle. He'll either sink or swim, says Mark Hughes
Former McLaren F1 team-mates Mika Häkkinen and David Coulthard are set to renew old rivalries in a new Evening with... tour – they told James Elson all about it
In Formula 1, driver contracts may look iron-clad on paper, but history shows that some of its biggest stars have made dramatic early exits
Former McLaren F1 ace told James Elson about his private audience with The Beatles' George Harrison, who played an unreleased grand prix-themed song