Matt Bishop 🏳️🌈 🏁
@TheBishF1
Diagonal Comms MD; Racing Pride founding ambassador; MotorSport columnist; podcaster; novelist; petrolhead; snooker buff; Londoner; historian; politico; LGBTQ+
Pedro Rodríguez delivered one of F1's most legendary drives at the old Spa in 1970, as @TheBishF1 revisited ahead of the #BelgianGP go.motorsportmagazine.com/3HoTfpQ
#HappyBirthday Jean-Claude Rudaz, 83. He entered one #F1 GP, Monza ’64, in a privateer Cooper, qualified, but blew his engine & was thereby unable to start. But he’d raced the car in 2 ’64 non-championship F1 races, the #SyracuseGP & the #InternationalTrophy. Pic by Sacha Bittel.
#HappyBirthday Torsten Palm, 78. A double champion in Swedish #F3 (’70 & ’71) & a sometime #F2 driver in ’73 & ’74, he entered 2 #F1 GPs in a Hesketh 308 in ’75, qualifying for his home race, the #SwedishGP, finishing 10th, & here pictured DNQ-ing at Monaco (pic by Luc Joly).
To most, he’s just 'The other Ascari', despite being one of the all-time greats. @TheBishF1 tells the tragically short tale of Antonio Ascari go.motorsportmagazine.com/40rbgL2
WHO WE ARE 📢 Founded in June 2023 to deliver strategic, sophisticated, no-nonsense comms, based on peerless expertise and a passionate commitment to deliver against our clients’ objectives, this is Diagonal Comms. Coverage. Traction. Awareness. Eyeballs. We get it at Diagonal.
Remembering John Barber, London fishmonger turned racing driver, born #OnThisDay in ’29. He drove one GP, Argentina ’53 (pic), in a Cooper T23, & finished 8th. He raced very little after that & retired to live on a boat in the Med. He died in Palma de Mallorca in 2015, aged 85.
Remembering Gino Bianco, who sounds like a ’70s cruiseship crooner but was in fact a ’40s/’50s racer, born #OnThisDay in 1916. A Brazilian hillclimb champ, he started 4 GPs in ’52, in an Escuderia Bandeirantes Maserati A6GCM (pic), DNF’d 3 times, & was 18th once. He died in ’84.
Remembering US sports writer Ed Hinton, born #OnThisDay in ’48. I met him when the #USGP was first held at Indy in 2000, & I found him clever, engaging & far from aloof, despite his seniority. More important, he was a wonderfully original phrase maker. Check this out for example.
Was #F1 more exciting in days of yore? Not always. #OnThisDay in ’62, at Aintree, Jim Clark (Lotus 25; pic) took the first of his 5 #BritishGP wins, leading all the way, from pole, with fastest lap, & winning by 49sec. #AnorakFact: the ’85 British GP also took place #OnThisDay.
The #BritishGP has been run #OnThisDay 5 times. On 20 July ’74, at Brands Hatch, it was the first #F1 GP that I ever went to, aged 11. It was won by Jody Scheckter, with whom I had lunch in Fulham, London, just the other day. Life is a magnificent journey, & I’m a lucky man.
Chris Amon, born #OnThisDay in ’43, was not only the unluckiest #F1 driver of them all but also the finest never to have won a championship-status F1 GP. Click below to read a @Motor_Sport column I wrote about him. motorsportmagazine.com/articles/singl…
Tony Marsh was born #OnThisDay in ’31 & raced 4 #F1 GPs for Cooper & Lotus in ’57, ’58 & ’61. He was a big star of the #BritishHillclimbChampionship, winning it a record 6 times. Pic: Marsh in his ex-Jo Bonnier BRM P48, lifting an inside rear wheel at Bo’ness Hillclimb in ’66.
DIAGONAL DIARY 📰 In anticipation of this year's Hungarian Grand Prix, the Hungaroring received a major upgrade, which we experienced early when we visited the track for our client, @rokit 👀🏗️ Here's what the #F1 world can look forward to 👇 diagonalcomms.com/2025/07/diagon…
A #BritishGP has been held #OnThisDay 4 times - in ’52, ’58, ’69 & ’75 - & here’s the beautiful high-airbox McLaren M23 that Emerson Fittipaldi drove to victory in a chaotic race in the last of those years. It was his 14th & final #F1 GP win.
The #BritishGP has been held #OnThisDay 7 times - in ’53, ’59, ’70, ’76, ’81, ’82 & 2021. The ’76 race was won on the road by McLaren’s James Hunt (pic) - but the result was changed 2 months later by the FIA, who awarded the win to Ferrari’s Niki Lauda.
Remembering Eric Brandon, ’51 British #F3 champion, born in London’s East End #OnThisDay in 1920. Pic: hard at work in his #F2 Cooper-Bristol, in which he entered 4 GPs in ’52, the first of the 2 years in which GP racing was run to F2 rules.
#OnThisDay 10 years ago talented young #F1 driver Jules Bianchi tragically passed away. Pic: a happy Jules celebrates victory for Lotus ART in the #GP2 feature race at Silverstone in 2011.
