Former Aston Martin and McLaren figurehead launches brand new career venture

Well-known F1 communications manager Matt Bishop has outlined his next career move, following his departure from Aston Martin.

Bishop is one of the most recognisable background figures in F1, following years as a communications manager – most recently with Aston Martin. He is also a founding ambassador of motorsport LGBTQ+ group Racing Pride.

Before his two years with Aston Martin, Bishop served as communications director for W Series after leaving the same role at McLaren – a position in which he’d worked for over 10 years alongside the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Jenson Button, and Sergio Perez.

Prior to that, Bishop had been editor of the F1 Racing magazine for over a decade.

Last November, Bishop announced that he would be leaving his role at Aston Martin and he promptly left at the conclusion of the 2022 season, coinciding his departure with that of four-time World Champion Sebastian Vettel.

This week, Bishophas taken to social mediato announce his next career move, with the former journalist and editor heading into the world of PR.

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Bishop is now the managing director of a new communications, content, PR, and strategy company named Diagonal Communications, which will be backed by London-based Kimura Performance.

Former communications manager at W Series Joe Downes will also be joining Diagonal Communications as a business director, while well-respected veteran of F1 communications Ann Bradshaw is coming on board as a motorsport consultant.

“Having worked in Formula 1 and other motorsport media, comms, PR, content, and strategy roles since well before the current Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen was born, I have long harboured an ambition to form a communications/content/PR/strategy agency,” said Bishop of his new venture.

“Now, with the active support of Kimura Performance and the tremendous assistance of Joe Downes, Ann Bradshaw and Tim Holmes, together we have been able to do just that.

“Diagonal Communications will supply its clients with strategic communications; brand building services; reputation management; media coverage generation; crisis communications advice; content creation; activation planning; digital and social media management; media monitoring; media training; copywriting; speech writing; thought leadership counsel; and diversity, equity and inclusion counsel and leadership.

“Founded on its principals’ unrivalled experience in general sport, motorsport and automotive, Diagonal Communications will provide strategic, sophisticated, authentic, effective, media-savvy, no-nonsense comms based on peerless knowledge and a passionate commitment to understand, and deliver against, our clients’ challenges and objectives.”

Le Mans racer Ferdinand Habsburg and his Team Rebel have become the agency’s first clients.