Josie Smith: Social Media and Communications in MotoGP
- alicejukes
- Aug 8
- 6 min read
There was never a formal roadmap guiding Josie Smith into motorsport. She didn’t step from a journalism degree into a graduate role or climb the rungs of a traditional media ladder. Instead, she came at it sideways, through veterinary nursing, long shifts, and a love of writing that refused to stay boxed in. At first, she blogged for fun. Then she started noticing the gaps, the stories left untold, the human moments in motorsport that most publications weren’t writing about. So, she filled them.
“I started writing about things I really liked,” she says. “Race reports felt the same everywhere. I wrote about Valentino Rossi’s haircuts, pets in the paddock… anything I found interesting.” That instinct to follow curiosity over convention is what ultimately got her noticed. “It was how my old boss found my work. He saw that I clearly loved writing about motorsport, and it led to my first job in Formula One.”
Josie soon found herself in the heart of Formula One, working at the intersection of sport, storytelling, and global scrutiny. As part of a team managing fan-facing content, she worked closely with top-tier drivers like George Russell and Lance Stroll, crafting narratives that reached millions each race weekend. When Russell stepped into the Mercedes seat alongside Lewis Hamilton, a landmark moment in the F1 grid’s evolution, Josie was behind the scenes helping to coordinate weekly media plans and shape how that transition was communicated to fans.
“I’d grown up watching Schumacher at Mercedes,” she says. “Suddenly I was in planning meetings with them, working on content that would be seen worldwide.” It was surreal, but it was also a turning point. She wasn’t just a fan anymore. She was part of the machine.
That role came with added complexity. Josie joined the sport during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the paddock had gone remote and almost everything shifted to digital-first. Without the usual race weekend access, teams had to completely rethink how they connected with fans. Her job was no longer just about creating content; it was about helping reimagine how Formula One communicated during one of the most disrupted periods in its history.
The pace was relentless. It required constant coordination, fast turnarounds, and an acute awareness of how even the smallest moment could escalate or be misinterpreted online. “F1 is a lot more intense,” she says. “You’re always monitoring what’s being said, how it’s being interpreted. Even offhand remarks can spiral if taken out of context.”
After several years working under agency structures, Josie made a decision that was both bold and deeply personal. In 2023, she co-founded First on the Throttle Media, her own agency, alongside her partner, Matt Dunn. The goal was simple and powerful: support the next generation of riders in MotoGP’s junior categories, and give them the tools and platform to be seen, heard, and remembered.
At the heart of First on the Throttle is a belief that stories matter, especially the quieter ones, the ones forming not at the top of the podium but further back, where riders are still finding their rhythm, their voice, and their audience. For Josie, the decision to work with younger riders wasn’t just about career trajectory. It was about timing, opportunity, and giving these athletes the kind of media literacy and personal branding skills that too often come too late.
“By the time riders get to MotoGP, they’ve usually got a set image, a way of doing things, and they’re harder to reach,” she explains. “In Moto2 and Moto3, they’re still working things out. They’re more open to experimenting, to growing. It’s the perfect time to help shape something with them, not just for them.”
That ethos defines the work she and Matt now do with riders like Jake Dixon, Jacob Roulstone, Eddie O’Shea and Collin Veijer; a tight, eclectic group they’ve carefully assembled, primarily English-speaking, often underrepresented. The decision to focus on that demographic wasn’t arbitrary.
“The Spanish and Italian riders tend to have more media support around them. They’re brought up in environments that are steeped in the sport. A lot of the English-speaking guys don’t have that same infrastructure. We saw a gap, and we wanted to do something about it.”
Doing something about it, in Josie’s case, means everything from managing media schedules to helping a rider rework their Instagram captions. It means advocating for them when others aren’t paying attention. It means knowing when to push and when to pull back. The work is immersive, constant, and personal.
“We joke about content sometimes, Collin used to write the driest captions,” she laughs. “I’d message him and say, ‘Lovely photos. Awful caption.’ And he’d take it on board. He’s outgrown that now, but the rapport matters. You have to be able to joke, to be honest. That’s how you build trust.”
That trust extends beyond the riders to their families. Josie speaks of them not as clients or contacts, but as an extended community, people she’s come to know deeply, whose sacrifices and stakes in the sport run just as high. “I’ve got a great relationship with Collin’s dad, with Eddie’s family, Jacob’s family. You hear things from them that the riders themselves might not share, because it’s too personal, or they don’t think it matters. But it does. That context is everything.”
One of those stories is Eddie O’Shea’s. In 2022, he nearly lost his racing career after a mountain biking crash ruptured his femoral artery. The incident required a cadaver artery and months of recovery. Most fans wouldn’t know that unless they’d seen the Born Racers series or spoken to someone like Josie, who makes it her mission to surface the untold.
“There’s so much that happens off-track that gets missed,” she says. “And often, unless you’re winning, you’re invisible. These kids are sacrificing everything, family time, education, a normal life, to chase this dream. That deserves to be seen. Even if they don’t win a championship, that story matters.”
Her ability to move seamlessly between personal insight and professional strategy is what makes Josie such a force in the paddock. She’s unflinching in her assessment of the work, especially the invisible labour involved. Running a company with a partner might sound ideal, though in practice, it blurs every line. “There’s no real work-life balance. We try, yet when you’re both in the trenches, the job follows you home. The upside is we know how to push each other.”
They’ve faced setbacks, financial uncertainty, logistical nightmares, moments of doubt about whether the gamble would pay off. “Even if you’ve got good relationships with people, introducing money into the mix always complicates things. You don’t know who’s going to say yes. You don’t know how long a rider will have their seat. It’s a risk, always.”
That risk is balanced by conviction. Josie didn’t come into motorsport to follow the rules. She came to rewrite them.
That perspective is sharpened by her experience as a woman in the industry. While her account is overwhelmingly positive, one of competence outweighing prejudice, she’s clear-eyed about the undercurrents that still exist. “Most of the men I’ve worked with, especially now, don’t care what gender you are. They care whether you can do your job,” she says. “There are moments. You speak up in a meeting, and someone repeats what you said, and suddenly it lands. Or you get held responsible for something that wasn’t yours. It’s rare, yet it happens.”
What doesn’t happen, she jokes, is standing in front of a moving bike. “That’s the one line I don’t cross. I’ll stand in the way of a generator if I can’t hear it, never a bike.” She’s had to nudge a few pit lane photographers out of the way in her time, warning them that they’re standing in the direct path of a Moto2 release. “You get used to reading body language, when a bike’s about to move, when the crew’s ready. That’s the kind of awareness you only get from being in the garage.”
After years navigating two of motorsport’s most prestigious arenas, Formula One and MotoGP, Josie’s reflections carry weight. She’s seen what it takes to survive in both, the polish and the politics of F1, the chaos and closeness of the bike racing world.
She’s seen how differently media is handled, how access shapes narrative, how structure can both support and suffocate. Through it all, she’s carved a space where her values, authenticity, creativity, advocacy, lead the way. For those hoping to follow in her path, she offers grounded advice. “Don’t do what you think people want to see. Create the content you love. If that’s writing, write something weird. Write about hairstyles or pets or whatever makes you light up, because when you care, other people notice.”
That approach is what got her noticed in the first place. It’s what turned a side blog into a full-time career. It’s what now powers a company built on care, connection, and craft. It’s also what continues to make her an essential presence in the paddock, not just as a media professional, but as a storyteller determined to widen the lens.
In motorsport, the front of the grid might get the headlines. The future, however, is being written behind the scenes, and Josie Smith is helping shape it, one story at a time.
Be sure to check out Josie's blog that started her incredible journey, 'Into the Kitty Litter' here: