Meet The Team: Ben Cowley

Get to know the third of our Co-Founders and Directors, Ben Cowley, with insights into how social media and content in motorsport has evolved, the importance of rolling up your sleeves, and why we should all be taking care of our mental health.

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Was there a particular moment when you knew you were going to work in motorsport?

When I was younger, working in motorsport felt like a dream that was probably unattainable. I started out trying to become a driver and did some karting to a decent level when I was a kid, but then didn't have the talent or the financial backing to go any further.

At that point I felt genuinely lost, because I had built my whole life around that goal. All I wanted to do was be a racing driver, so when that dream ended, it felt like a career in the industry was never going to happen.  

When it eventually did, it was a wonderful surprise. So yes, I have always known I wanted to work in motorsport – I guess there were just points in time when I wondered whether it would actually be achievable.

What’s the biggest risk you've taken in your career, and did it pay off?

The biggest professional risk I've taken was actually how this all started. When my racing journey finished, I went to University to study Modern Languages because I was rubbish at everything else at school and didn’t know what else to do. 18 months into the course I realised I didn't have a clue where I was going or why I was doing it, so I dropped out.

At that point, I decided to move to a different University and study Business Management. I've always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit in me that comes from my upbringing. My dad started his own business and so did his dad, so it felt like a much more natural fit.

Having dropped out of the previous course, I couldn't get the same level of student loan, so I was working full-time alongside my studies. In hindsight, I think that was the best thing that could have happened to me. It really taught me the value of money and gave me the determination to push myself even harder than my peers to achieve the same goal.

When I graduated, there was no path directly into motorsport. I was one of countless people with a similar degree and nothing else of real substance to show for myself on paper. So, I worked in recruitment to earn some money and put myself in a position to apply for work experience.

Via a contact I made on LinkedIn – ironically the same guy who gave James [Robinson] his first full-time role at the same team, and to whom I am incredibly grateful to this day – I was fortunate enough to land a two-week work placement at what is now Alpine F1 Team [then Lotus F1 Team].

I used annual leave to take on the role and, when that two-week placement came to an end, they said they would like me to carry on. The caveat was, there was no guarantee of a permanent job, or even how long it would last at all, and they still wouldn't be able to pay me.

I took the gamble and quit my job on the spot.

I spent the next four months living out of a backpack in room shares that I found online day-to-day, eating every meal in the subsidised staff canteen and showering in the gym, to keep costs as low as I could. Nobody knew it at the time, but sometimes I even slept in my car in the car park.

During that time my long-term partner and I broke up, so I was single, effectively homeless and working for free, with no guarantee of a job at the end of it all. If it hadn't worked out, I would have had to start my life over. I suppose it was a pretty big risk, but it paid off in the end.

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Your name has been mentioned as the ‘OG’ of motorsport social media. What do you say to that?

There were a lot of talented people already in the industry working in similar fields when I arrived, experimenting with this new thing called 'social media', trying their best to make something of it even when the commercial rights holder was pushing hard against it. They laid the groundwork for myself and others who followed, so I have too much respect for them and my peers from that time to accept the 'OG' title.

At the time I came into the motorsport industry, it was just on the cusp of starting to embrace social media, so you could say I got in at the ground level. I was there, in the right place at the right time, as the phenomenon began to gather momentum and was fortunate to be part of that initial wave.

What has been the biggest 'pinch me' moment in your career?

There have been so many. Walking into the Enstone [Lotus F1 Team] factory for the first time was like nothing else I'd ever experienced. Just to get in the through the doors and be interviewed for that internship was incredible; I'm surprised I got it, because I know I was an absolute wreck. That was the first 'pinch me' moment and being offered a job there permanently was definitely the second.

My first trackside experience, at a private test in Valencia ahead of the 2012 season, was next. I was there when Kimi Räikkönen got back in an F1 car for the first time after two years out. Posting on socials and interviewing him as part of that moment was phenomenal, because Kimi was someone I hugely admired when I was a young racer.

Of course, working my first Grand Prix; flying to Australia and being in the Melbourne paddock for the first race of the season when I had barely ever left the UK previously and never even experienced an F1 weekend live before, was a surreal experience.

Being there when Lewis Hamilton won his second World Championship, his first with Mercedes, in that landmark showdown with Nico Rosberg in Abu Dhabi. Not just being there but being Lewis' Press Officer at the time was an immense privilege. There are too many to mention, there really are.

I think if I was to look more specifically at what I do now, it would be when Pace Six Four won 'International Agency of the Year' at the Race Media Awards in 2024. That was a real 'pinch me' moment in a very different way.

The previous moments were more; 'I can't believe I get to do this for a living, I'm so, so lucky to be here'. That moment was different, because it was the first time in my career where I looked around me at the people I was with, my team, being given that award for their work, and thought to myself; 'I must have done something right along the way here. Maybe I have earned my place.'

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Why did you decide to leave a coveted role at Mercedes F1 Team and start 64^th & Social, as it was then?

There were several different reasons. By then, I had been at Mercedes for five years and worked within F1 teams for eight in total. I loved every single second of that period of my career and felt immensely privileged to have had so many incredible opportunities as a result.

I started as an intern at Lotus and worked my way up to Head of Content at Mercedes, building a team of brilliant people around me – so brilliant, in fact, that to be honest I didn't feel like they really needed me anymore. I was there to advise, to guide, to mentor as they needed, but while I felt like my presence helped, I didn't feel I was making enough of an impact.

I was very comfortable, doing something that I loved as part of a group of people I adored and respected enormously, but I wasn't pushing myself – and I'm not the sort of person who is comfortable just collecting a cheque and going through the motions.

I'm a very restless soul; if I'm not pushing myself, I'm not happy. I'm the sort of person who thrives under pressure and in difficult circumstances where my back is against the wall and I've got to come out swinging.

At Mercedes, I wasn't getting that anymore, because the team around me were doing such a brilliant job. I needed that pressure and that unknown – the 'shit, I don't know what I'm doing, and I've got to work it out quickly' moments – to keep my motivation up, keep me progressing, and keep me growing.

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"I'm a very restless soul; if I'm not pushing myself, I'm not happy."

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What's the hardest thing about your job now?

The hardest thing about my job right now is finding balance. I've got a lot better at it, that's for sure, but left to my own devices I could quite easily work 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I love what I do, and I care about this business and everyone within it, but I also have a young family and that is the most important thing to me.

It's very easy to over-commit to work – not just in terms of time, but brain capacity and attention. Balancing the two things that I love the most, my family and my business, making sure that I'm giving each the right level of attention, is a challenge. Sometimes I get it right, sometimes I get it wrong, but it's something I'm constantly striving to be better at.

What have been the challenges of taking the business from a very successful startup to what it is now – a mid-sized agency?

For me personally, learning to let go has probably been the biggest challenge. When it was a much smaller entity, I was involved in every element of everything we did. I knew the business inside out; the clients, the work, the processes… but as we've grown that has become unsustainable.

My role has evolved significantly to the point where I now have very little hands-on involvement with our output. That's been tough because the creative in me wants to get involved, but also because I've had such ownership over everything previously that I feel a personal connection to it.

Output aside, I care deeply about our people, which has also made stepping back a challenge. I am incredibly proud and fiercely protective of this team, which has sometimes clouded my judgement on when to get involved and when to stand aside.

I've always trusted my team and, I hope, empowered them to deliver to the best of their abilities. But giving them space to learn from failure rather than coming to the rescue doesn't come naturally to me. Over time though, I've learned that in doing the latter I'm depriving them of opportunities to grow.

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What's the story behind the company merger?

We had been working on this for a long time. People will have seen the fact that Christian [Dixon] started officially earlier this year, and that we announced he was joining at the end of last year, but those conversations were going on for the best part of 12 months beforehand.

We wanted to make sure that, when it finally came to fruition, this was the right decision for the business and for all three of us individually. That involved a lot of discussions to ensure we covered every base and left no stone unturned, which I'm confident we achieved.

That's not to say the job is done – far from it. The next phase is delivering on a shared vision for the business that puts us on a path to counting ourselves amongst the biggest and best in the game as a true full-service agency – and that is no small undertaking.

We're only six years old from our origins as 64^th & Social, even younger as Pace Six Four, and we're already talking about positioning ourselves amongst multinationals with decades of experience and hundreds of employees around the world. We've got a long way to go, but that's where we want to be.

How do the three arms of the business work together between yourself, James and Christian?

Until now, we haven't been able to call ourselves a true full-service agency. Today, we have strength in all the right fields of expertise, coupled with a broader knowledge and experience that will push the business forward to a whole new level and bring everyone within it on that journey with us.

If you want to boil it down to basic terms; I am a creative, Christian is a marketeer, and James is a salesman. I may have a base level understanding of their specialisms, but they are infinitely stronger in those areas than I am, so I trust them completely to develop and run their arms of the business.

We are united under one umbrella, and we have a shared vision for where we want the business to go, but we also trust in each other's strengths and will continue to make sure we deliver the most value to the different verticals by playing to those strengths.

I think that's one of the biggest strengths we have. We respect each other enormously and know where our relative strengths lie, so we're happy to empower and enable each other to be the best that we can be both individually and collectively. There's no competition, only collaboration.

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"We respect each other enormously and know where our relative strengths lie, so we're happy to empower and enable each other to be the best that we can be both individually and collectively."

What makes you most excited about the future of the business?

It's always been the talent we have here that excites me most. Over the past six years, as the business has grown, I've frequently been asked the age-old question; 'what's the key to your success?' For me, it's incredibly simple; if you employ good people, empower them to do their job, and encourage them to be the best version of themselves, they will do the rest.

I’m certainly no business guru. In fact, relative to the vast array of talent we have in this business, I have no discernible skills worth writing about. But I do know good people when I see them and, when I bring them in, I trust them to deliver. This business has been built on that mentality. We bring great people together and give them a platform to shine. There's no secret ingredient.

The depth of talent we have within this business, coupled with the experience and vision that the three directors now collectively bring mean the sky's the limit.

What gets you out of bed on the tough days?

I would say there are two things. The first is a duty of care to the people within this team. They are the main reason that we are where we are today, and if they are dedicating themselves to driving this business forward as successfully as we have done so far, the least I can do is show them the same level of commitment; not just when things are going well, but even more so on the tough days.

The second is a mantra often cited by Toto Wolff during my time at Mercedes. I learned a huge amount about leadership from Toto, but the thing that stuck with me most was a quote he gave during one of my early interviews with him; “It's on the days we fail that our competitors should be most afraid, because that's when we learn the most.”

If I've had a bad day, those two things are what give me the fire in my belly to come back fighting.

I'll get out of bed in the morning telling myself; “You're going to learn from this, and you're going to be better and stronger for it”. Success teaches you very little, failure teaches you everything, so you have to see the tough days as an opportunity to grow.

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What are the biggest changes you've seen in the content side of F1 over the last 10 years?

Without doubt, the most monumental shift occurred when Liberty Media acquired Formula 1. When I first started in this game, we weren't allowed to shoot any moving imagery whatsoever inside the circuit perimeter at FOM events. Today, there are a lot more opportunities to go and create great content, particularly trackside.

What we do in terms of content creation and social media is being taken much more seriously within the industry as a result. When I started at Mercedes in 2014, the entire communications and digital team consisted of four people – two leading communications and two focused on social media, but with significant overlap across all four roles.

I was acting as Lewis Hamilton's Press Officer while also writing content for press releases / website articles, managing the CMS / media database platforms, running the social channels and producing / shooting content for those channels – all within a team that was winning titles with one of the biggest sports personalities in the world.

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Now think about that in the context of modern-day motorsport, where Formula 1 teams, the bigger ones at least, may turn up to a major event with four content creators alone. That shows you how far things have come in terms of the industry's recognition of the importance of what we do.

With the ability to go and create more rich media content, there has also been an explosion of talent pouring into the paddocks of the world, which has been phenomenal to see. It means that the industry has evolved into very much a specialist game now.

What message would you have for youngsters thinking about a career in motorsport?

Regardless of the industry, there are fundamental principles that I look for in people that I don't think you can teach. If you have those, I think you're getting yourself off on a very solid footing. They all revolve around respect, integrity and work ethic.

When I started out, I didn't have anywhere near the level of understanding or the skillset that I had after a couple of years doing the job, so I chose to be a sponge – absorbing as much information as I could from those around me. No matter who you're working with, what they do, and even whether you get on with them or not, you can always learn from them.

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So that would be my first bit of advice; in any situation you're in, soak up as much as you can from those more experienced than you. There is no such thing as a wasted conversation. The other bit of advice I would give is to get stuck in, and I can give a very specific example of what I mean by that.

On the Sunday night of my first race with Lotus, the 2012 Australian Grand Prix, we'd finished our jobs on the comms side at around seven or eight o'clock in the evening and were packing up at the end of what felt like a pretty long day.

Walking out of the team hospitality area, where our desks were based, was the first time I'd experienced the paddock being packed down. There were forklift trucks and people in high vis vests hurrying around everywhere. I was blown away by the logistical operation unfolding in front of me.

I walked up to the Race Team Co-Ordinator, a fantastic man by the name of Geoff Simmonds, who I consider a friend to this day, to ask how much longer the crew would be there for and whether they'd be coming back to the hotel for a beer afterwards.

He laughed and said, “Not a chance mate. We'll be here till one, two o'clock in the morning getting everything in these containers and off to Malaysia, then we'll roll back to the hotel, have a shower and get on the plane.”

I asked him if I could help and again, he laughed, saying; “You're marketing, mate, that's not what you guys do.” As it turned out, nobody from the marketing team had ever stayed behind to help before or even offered to do so. It wasn't a conscious decision on their part, it just wasn't the done thing. Everybody had their roles to play, and it wasn't in the job description.

So, when I said, “Well, what if I wanted to help?” he grinned at me and replied, “Here's a high-vis vest, let's see how long you last.” I ended up staying until the very end, loved every minute of it and did the same at every event I could.

I got to know everyone in the garage and the relationships I built stood me in good stead for the rest of my career at Lotus. I'd proven myself to be a team player from the outset and earned one of my biggest career advocates in Geoff in the process.

The lesson here is that no matter your role or status, nothing is beneath you, and you should never be afraid to roll your sleeves up for the good of the team.

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"No matter your role or status, nothing is beneath you, and you should never be afraid to roll your sleeves up for the good of the team."

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How do you protect and preserve your mental health in an industry like this?

Mental health is a subject incredibly close to my heart and it's not spoken about enough within this industry. It's getting better, but there's still a long way to go. It's something I've always been very open about with my team, from the very first person who walked through the door right up to today.

I have struggled with my mental health throughout my adult life. I was eventually diagnosed as suffering from depression and anxiety in late 2011 and was on medication for it initially. For the past few years, though, I have been seeing a counsellor on a regular basis instead.

It's something I wish I'd started a lot earlier in life, because I cannot tell you how beneficial it has been to me. I honestly think that anybody, no matter whether they're having a tough time or they're on top of the world, could benefit from seeing a counsellor, even if only semi-regularly.

I started that process at a time in my life where I needed help because I was in a bad place. Nowadays, my therapist is almost like my life coach. I still see her now, even though I'm in a much, much better place these days, because she helps me to get the best out of myself.

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Read Ben's Article: Finding Strength in Weakness

As an agency, we worked on a piece around mental health with George Russell and Meta a couple of years ago, and I thought his approach summed it up perfectly. Good mental health is just like good physical health – you shouldn't just nurture it when it's in a bad place, you need to work hard to maintain it. I was really impressed with how eloquently and openly he spoke about the subject.

It's also important to speak up when you're struggling. I'm incredibly fortunate that I have surrounded myself with people who understand me and know exactly what I need if I'm having a bad day, so I can count on them to support me.

I like to think that's true across the team – that we're there for each other in whatever way we need at any given moment. Having those allies alongside you in a safe and supportive environment helps you be the best version of yourself, no matter how you're feeling.

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Watch the George Russell / Meta Reel

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The key message I'd like to send to anybody who has experienced similar challenges is that they don't have to hold you back. I've had to learn how best to manage my mental health along the way, and I still have days where I struggle, but my career to date has far exceeded my expectations and I still have so much more to achieve. Don't let anything stand in the way of achieving your potential.