Matt Bishop
Reputation in elite, hyper-public organisations is decided in minutes, not quarters. One driver, one statement, one race weekend can move sponsorship value, regulator attention and internal morale in directions a leadership team did not authorise. Most communications playbooks were not built for that pace, and most senior leaders have not been coached through it.
Matt Bishop is a former Chief Communications Officer of the McLaren and Aston Martin Formula 1 teams who helps organisations lead reputation, crisis communications and inclusion under public scrutiny.
Full Profile
Why organisations work with Matt Bishop
- He has run reputation for two of the most-watched teams in global sport, including through the spygate-era recovery at McLaren and the high-profile relaunch of Aston Martin F1 in 2021. Few comms leaders have operated at that level of public exposure.
- He brokered Sebastian Vettel’s BBC Question Time appearance on climate, the first time a Formula 1 World Champion debated sustainability on the programme. That is a worked example of using a star principal to advance a contested corporate position without losing either.
- As founder ambassador of Racing Pride, set up with Stonewall in 2019, he has translated DEI from policy language into action inside an industry that historically resisted it. His advocacy is operational, not declarative.
- He spent over a decade as a senior journalist, including eleven years editing F1 Racing magazine. He understands the room he is briefing because he sat in it.
- His current firm Diagonal Communications was built specifically for crisis, reputation and DEI counsel in high-stakes commercial environments, which is the lens he brings to a corporate audience.
Biography highlights
- Chief Communications Officer, McLaren Racing, 2008 to 2017
- Chief Communications Officer, Aston Martin F1 Team, 2021 and 2022 seasons
- Editor of F1 Racing magazine, 1996 to 2007, with monthly worldwide circulation around 1.25 million copies
- Founder ambassador of Racing Pride, established 2019 in collaboration with Stonewall
- Founder, Diagonal Communications, 2023, advising automotive and motorsport clients
- Author of the novel The Boy Made the Difference (2020) and co-author of Emerson Fittipaldi’s autobiography Emmo: a Racer’s Soul (2014)
Biography
A driver, a sponsor and a regulator can each move within hours of the same press conference. In Formula 1 the gap between reputation event and commercial consequence is unusually short, and the leaders inside the team have to make calls in that gap. Matt Bishop ran communications through that environment for almost fifteen years.
He joined McLaren Racing as Chief Communications Officer in 2008 and stayed until 2017, a period that included some of the most contested reputational moments in the team’s modern history. He then took on the launch communications for W Series, the all-female single-seater championship, before returning to F1 in 2021 as Chief Communications Officer of the relaunched Aston Martin team. There he worked closely with Sebastian Vettel on climate advocacy, including arranging Vettel’s appearance on BBC Question Time in 2022.
Before McLaren, Bishop edited F1 Racing magazine for eleven years, growing it to a monthly worldwide circulation of around 1.25 million copies and serving as Editorial Director of Haymarket Motorsport Publications. The journalism background matters because it shapes how he counsels principals: he has been on the receiving end of corporate communications and knows when it is working and when it is not.
His advocacy work runs in parallel. In 2019 he co-founded Racing Pride with Stonewall to advance LGBTQ+ inclusion in motorsport, and his 2020 novel The Boy Made the Difference draws on his volunteering at London Lighthouse during the HIV/AIDS crisis. In 2023 he founded Diagonal Communications, a consultancy focused on crisis, reputation and inclusion counsel for automotive and motorsport clients.
Key speaking topics
- Communications leadership in elite sport
- Crisis communications and reputation management
- LGBTQ+ inclusion in traditionally closed industries
- Diversity, equity and inclusion in motorsport
- Working with high-profile principals on contested issues
- Sustainability communication and climate advocacy
- Media strategy under public scrutiny
Ideal for
- Chief Communications Officers, Heads of Corporate Affairs and CMOs facing high-stakes reputation events
- CHROs and DEI leads in industries where inclusion has historically been resisted
- Boards and executive teams briefing public-facing principals on contested topics
- Sponsorship, partnership and brand teams operating in or alongside elite sport
Audience outcomes
- A clear view of how reputation decisions get made under live public pressure, drawn from inside two F1 teams
- A working sense of how to brief a high-profile principal on a contested issue without losing the principal or the position
- Specific examples of inclusion moving from policy to practice in an industry that resisted it
- A sharper read on the relationship between media operations, sponsor expectation and team performance
- Language and structure for crisis communications that can be used the same week