Diagonal Diary: A new sim racing wheel, the BTCC’s 2025 calendar and an F1 movie
Monday 14th October
The week begins with some exciting news from our client the British Touring Car Championship. The 2025 event pages go live on their website, showing off next year’s calendar, which consists of 30 races at some of the United Kingdom’s most iconic circuits. 2025 tickets for seven of the 10 events are published simultaneously, so make sure you mark your diaries and make the most of early bird offers to come and enjoy the UK’s premier motorsport series next year.
Meanwhile, we are hard at work editing video content that we captured across the BTCC finale weekend at Brands Hatch, and we finalise a press release for our client Asetek SimSports, who has an exciting announcement coming up later this week.
Tuesday 15th October
Matt Bishop’s latest column for Motorsport Magazine is published. Matt, our MD, revisits the first world championship-status Formula 1 Malaysian Grand Prix, which took place exactly 25 years ago today at the fan-favourite Hermann Tilke-designed circuit in Sepang. The penultimate race of the 1999 season saw Michael Schumacher return to the cockpit of his Ferrari F399 for the first time since he broke his right leg in a high-speed accident at Silverstone 14 weeks prior.
He was straight on form, although he was deemed the number two driver at Ferrari in favour of teammate Eddie Irvine. You can read all about his wingman duties and a controversial post-race disqualification for the Scuderia here.
Just over a week on from the BTCC season finale, which saw Laser Tools Racing by MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill crowned the 2024 drivers’ champion, we continue to review who took silverware home from Brands Hatch. Today, we focus on Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing, who emerged victorious in the Independent Teams’ Championship. The Vauxhall Astra-driven team scored a mighty 591 points out of a possible 600 and we look back at their success with a press release, distributed across social media and the BTCC’s website, and a stylish graphic.
Wednesday 16th October
Continuing our look back on the BTCC’s 2024 champions, we shift focus to the Jack Sears’ Trophy Champion. Mikey Doble, whose performances aided Power Maxed Racing’s Independent Teams’ Championship victory, won half of all the races in the Jack Sears’ Trophy in 2024 and scored over double the points in the Drivers’ Championship than he did one year ago. We publish an interview with Mikey, which we filmed on the ground at Brands Hatch in the midst of the post-race celebrations, and upload a celebratory graphic on social media.
In our City of London offices, we are busy editing video content focused on the Renaissance Foundation, a London-based charity whose mission is to help young carers and patients reach their full potential, who attended the final round of the BTCC season at Brands Hatch as part of a special activation devised by Diagonal Comms. We followed their group of 16 carers and patients at the Kent circuit, which you will be able to see more about on the BTCC’s social media channels soon.
Thursday 17th October
The third episode from season two of And Colossally That’s History, the podcast hosted by Matt Bishop and Richard Williams, is published. Following their dive into the story of Niki Lauda’s horror crash at the Nürburgring in 1977 and his incredible comeback that followed last week, the pair wind back the clock to 1966 to discuss John Frankenheimer’s epic movie Grand Prix, which included on-location filming in the midst of that year’s Formula 1 world championship that is still admired by motorsport fans to this day.
It’s an exciting day for our client Asetek SimSports. Having teased it on social media over recent weeks, the covers finally come off their brand-new Invicta Steering Wheel. Inspired by real-life Formula cars, it channels Asetek’s long history of innovation, engineering excellence, and real-world racing experience, and represents the pinnacle of the Danish sim racing hardware manufacturer’s steering wheel lineup. We distribute a press release announcing the Invicta Steering Wheel’s release which ensures gaming, tech and motorsport media are up to speed with Asetek’s latest and greatest product.
We continue to work on securing earned editorial coverage for Caitlin Wood, the Australian racing driver currently competing in the Indian Racing League with Bangalore Speedsters, having spent the start of 2024 racing in the Porsche Sprint Challenge Great Britain. Caitlin is back in India this weekend for the fourth round of the Indian Racing League season, which will take place at Kari Motor Speedway.
Friday 18th October
Rounding out a busy week for our team, the ADAC SimRacing Expo, one of the biggest annual events in the sim racing space, begins in Dortmund, Germany. Asetek SimSports is on the ground in force today and will continue to be present over the weekend, so make sure you head to their booth to learn more about their products, including the brand-new Invicta Steering Wheel, and their journey in sim racing.
Shifting focus back onto real-world racing, the off-season is in full swing; the majority of junior single-seater categories have come to an end for 2024 and the BTCC’s winter break has begun. However, we are by no means any less busy, and we are hard at work producing three proposals for potential new clients.