Simon Jean-Joseph: “You have to believe in your dreams”

Hello Simon. You are now an ambassador. Porsche ! What would 10-year-old Simon think if he met you in 2025?

That's a trick question! But above all, being an ambassador for a brand as iconic as Porsche in the Caribbean is a huge honor. It's a brand that embodies both excellence and constant challenge. I think little Simon would be simply amazed.

As a child, it seems you used to get up at night to listen to rallies on the radio. Is that true?

Yes, I was a big fan of the magazine. Exhaust which, at the time, was a reference of the rally global, national and regional. I caught the bug very early thanks to my daydreams, my reading, but also because my father (Serge) and my brother (Alphonse) themselves did a bit of car racing. With the time difference, I would listen to the Turini climb on the radio at night, on AM waves. I was glued to my transistor radio until midnight, sometimes 1 a.m., in Martinique. This passion, which I lived so intensely behind my radio, played a big role in what I accomplished later.

You shared this passion with your family, so...

Yes, my brother was a bit unruly and he wanted to compete. My father, very busy with his professional activity, saw this as an opportunity to create a strong bond with him. He supported him when he started, then he started racing himself. This created a unique bond between them. I was nine years younger than my brother, so I followed them everywhere. There are photos of me polishing the windshield of my brother's Group 4 Porsche during an assistance! For my part, I did a bit of karting.

Unfortunately, your brother died during a race in 1983, during the Martinique Grand Prix. What impact did this tragedy have on your career?

This disappearance was a huge tragedy. In a family as close-knit as ours, it left deep scars on my mother, my father and myself. My brother died on Sunday, August 7th at 15 p.m., and was buried the next day. The day after, everything related to racing had disappeared from the house: cars, karting… My father felt that he could not