Jon Saltinstall grew up not far from Donington Park, where he witnessed his first motor race at the recently reopened circuit when aged 13, after winning tickets in a local newspaper competition. Already fascinated by the sport, which he had followed ever since he knew it existed, and enthused by watching the 1973 British Grand Prix on TV, he was by then a confirmed Ferrari fan and took particular interest in the rise of the Italian team’s young Austrian driver, Niki Lauda. Thanks to his uncle, whose job with a magazine wholesaler helpfully provided him with ‘unsaleable’ copies of Autosport, he obsessively pursued his interest in the sport.
While following a career in banking, Jon continued to expand his hobby as an amateur motorsport historian. His admiration for Lauda led him to embark on writing the book he wanted to read. Nine years of research and writing followed, and the result, Niki Lauda: His Competition History (Evro Publishing, 2019) was shortlisted for the RAC Motoring Book of the Year Award in 2020. His second book, Jacky Ickx: His Authorised Competition History (Evro Publishing, 2022), was written with the collaboration of its notoriously self-effacing subject and won the Guild of Motoring Writers’ Suzuki Award for the Montagu of Beaulieu Trophy in 2023.
Married with two grown-up children and two granddaughters, he lives in Leicestershire.
Simon Taylor has been immersed in motor sport for nearly 50 years as a journalist, commentator, publisher and historian. He joined the weekly magazine Autosport straight from university, and was its editor by the age of 23. He moved on to be a publisher for its proprietors, Haymarket Magazines, devising and launching other car magazines such as What Car? and Classic & Sports Car, and went on to be the company’s Managing Director and then its Chairman.
He was BBC Radio’s voice of motor racing for more than 20 years, reporting on Formula 1 from all over the world, and his TV commentary and presentation work includes being a member of ITV’s F1 team. He is the author of several books on car and motor racing history, and appeared in the Ron Howard movie Rush playing himself, as the BBC Radio commentator describing the James Hunt/Niki Lauda battles during the 1976 F1 season.
He has a small collection of classic cars, and competes in historic motor sport with his ex-Stirling Moss 1950 HWM sports-racing car. He is married and lives in London.
![]()
Simon Taylor has been immersed in motor sport for nearly 50 years as a journalist, commentator, publisher and historian. He joined the weekly magazine Autosport straight from university, and was its editor by the age of 23. He moved on to be a publisher for its proprietors, Haymarket Magazines, devising and launching other car magazines such as What Car? and Classic & Sports Car, and went on to be the company’s Managing Director and then its Chairman.
He was BBC Radio’s voice of motor racing for more than 20 years, reporting on Formula 1 from all over the world, and his TV commentary and presentation work includes being a member of ITV’s F1 team. He is the author of several books on car and motor racing history, and appeared in the Ron Howard movie Rush playing himself, as the BBC Radio commentator describing the James Hunt/Niki Lauda battles during the 1976 F1 season.
He has a small collection of classic cars, and competes in historic motor sport with his ex-Stirling Moss 1950 HWM sports-racing car. He is married and lives in London.
