S9 E1: Simon Harrison

any.

So you knew at the time, did you? That was it for you?

Yeah, yeah.

I think every sort of driver is really competitive.

And you're not in it for the taking part.

You are in it for the winning.

The fun bit is not the racing.

The fun bit is standing on the podium.

And the day you kind of work out you're not going to stand on podiums, you kind of don't see the point of it all.

So it was very clear that that was that.

Did you look back? Was there any sadness in that at all or just accepted it and moved on?

uh you're bound to be sad because it's been 20 odd years of your life but i suppose at that sort of time a whole other life was starting to sort of appear for me so i ended up getting involved in filming motorsport uh just as a one-man band just me doing all by myself but i really fell in love with that and you're still in the paddock you're still mixing with all your old mates you're still standing in the pit lane so you're still involved but at Rather than sort of having one good day and three bad days, and one good day, three bad days, which is the life of anyone trying to win a championship, suddenly now every day is pretty good, and you're loving it, and it's sort of less pressure.

And I managed to start a bit of a company, and we now work for all sorts of people like Porsche, Mercedes F1, Aston Martin F1, F1 themselves, a lot for Ford Racing, and there's a team of about 25 of us all doing it, and it's really good.

So...

I'm not sad because that's gave birth to a whole sort of second life, which I really enjoy.

So still hugely involved in motorsport and still, you know, the biggest motorsport fan and not out there and just love it.

Love it.

There's no, I still get excited every time I drive into a circuit, still get excited every time I step foot in a pit lane.

So yeah, I'm sure you're exactly the same.

It's just a wonderful sport to be involved in.

Small enough to be family, but big enough that there's plenty going on.

The one moment you look back on, I think you sort of mentioned it there, that race at Macau in 03, despite Jörg Muller doing what he did, that seems to be the highlight of your career.

I think I like...

I remember my dad always used to watch any sport and would always support the underdog.

So I think I like being the underdog and I think that was the ultimate underdog experience, turning up at Macau having not raced really all year.