Who Was The Stig In Top Gear?

Was Michael Schumacher the Stig on Top Gear

Remembering when Michael Schumacher was unveiled as ‘The Stig’ – 10 years since his F1 retirement Michael Schumacher once revealed himself to be the Stig on Top Gear, he certainly would have been perfect for the role. It depends who you ask exactly, but no one could argue if you named Schumacher as the greatest Formula One driver ever to step foot in a car.

With German won seven drivers’ World championships, giving him the joint most with Lewis Hamilton, and was a fierce and aggressive competitor. After winning two titles with Benetton, the legendary driver won five in-a-row with Ferrari, winning the first title in 21 years for the Prancing Horse, when he won his first in 2000.

One of his most iconic away from the track came in 2009, when he appeared on Top Gear, when The Stig revealed who he ‘really’ was. The Stig character was a masked racing driver who always showed Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May how to drive.

1. His actual name remained a mystery for years, as he only ever appeared dressed head to toe in racing gear, and never lifting his visor.
2. With rumours flying about who it might have actually been, the Top Gear team decided to tease that they’d finally reveal who it was.
3. Out came the Stig and he sat on the couch to be interviewed by Clarkson, who praised the mystery man with how well he drove the Ferrari.

That was some understatement when Schumacher was revealed to be the person wearing Stig’s outfit, but of course it wasn’t actually him. Schumacher celebrates his seventh world title. Image: Alamy Schumacher first joined F1 when he was given a seat at Jordan in 1991, and he impressed straight away with the midfield team. He won his first Drivers’ Championship in 1994, with the season marred by the death of Ayrton Senna, sadly fans never got to see the two greats battle it out for a title. Schumacher leads Hill in 1994. Image: Alamy The Benetton driver defended the title the following year, once again defeating Hill but this time by a much bigger difference in the points standings. He moved to Ferrari in 1996, with Hill winning the title that year and then Jacques Villeneuve and Mika Hakkinen winning the subsequent years.

Schumacher then came roaring back, and creating the most dominating period of any driver in history, winning five-in-a-row. He retired at the end of the 2006 season but returned in 2010 with Mercedes, in the new German team, driving alongside Nico Rosberg. Schumacher drove for two years with the Silver Arrows before hanging up his helmet for good, leaving the sport as a legend.

Sadly in 2013 he suffered an awful accident whilst skiing, falling onto a rock and suffering a head injury and being induced into a coma. He has not been seen in public since his accident, but he remains a hero to millions around the world. : Remembering when Michael Schumacher was unveiled as ‘The Stig’ – 10 years since his F1 retirement

Who was behind the Stig?

Speaking to the London Speaker Bureau back in 2021, Top Gear’s original Stig, Perry McCarthy, opened up a little about his stint as the helmet-clad mystery figure. He stated: ‘I’m an ex-Formula 1 racing-driver and I was the original Stig on BBC Top Gear.

Was the Stig an F1 driver

Top Gear last night apparently unveiled former formula one world champion Michael Schumacher as the show’s mysterious test driver, known as “the Stig” and forever hidden beneath a white helmet and overalls. Many media reports today took the apparent revelation at face value, including the Guardian, without questioning whether the German multi-millionaire and seven times F1 world champion would give his spare time to test-drive cars for the BBC2 show.

While the BBC’s official line today is that it would never reveal “who or what the Stig is”, MediaGuardian.co.uk is surely not alone in wondering if last night’s “unveiling” was merely a publicity stunt to help get the 13th series of Top Gear off to a flying start. “It was a tongue-in-cheek piece which wasn’t meant to be taken seriously,” one source said.

“The Stig is merely a character.” According to sources, there is no one person who is the Stig, but up to six drivers who take it in turns. Reports in January named former racer Ben Collins as the Stig, while Perry McCarthy, a former F1 driver, was the original character.

The stunt certainly succeeded in raising the profile of Top Gear, which launched its new series last night. The show has been the subject of budget cuts like other areas of the BBC and the free publicity certainly did wonders for its ratings, with the episode pulling in an average of 7.1 million viewers and a 30% share between 8pm and 9.05pm, peaking at 7.8 million for the Stig’s apparent unveiling.

The bumper ratings helped BBC2 to a rare all-day ratings win over ITV1. However, last night’s revelation wasn’t as much of a surprise as many had been led to believe. The episode was actually filmed on Wednesday and despite presenter Jeremy Clarkson asking the audience not to reveal that Schumacher appears from under the Stig’s white helmet, one person emailed several fan websites in the US which published the name, although this was apparently not picked up in the UK.

Who is the enemy of Lewis Hamilton?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The Hamilton–Rosberg rivalry (also known as The Silver War ) was a Formula One rivalry between British racing driver Lewis Hamilton and German racing driver Nico Rosberg, The rivalry was most prevalent during their four years as team-mates at Mercedes from 2013 to 2016, a period in which the two drivers dominated the sport.

• The pair’s relationship became strained and, at times, led to volatile confrontations on and off the track, with the duo being threatened with suspension at the height of their rivalry.
• It has been compared to the Prost–Senna rivalry,
• As teammates, Hamilton and Rosberg won 54 of 78 races over four seasons.

Hamilton had 32 victories, 55 podium finishes and qualified ahead of Rosberg 42 times. Rosberg had 22 victories, 50 podium finishes and qualified ahead of Hamilton 36 times. During this period, Hamilton won the Formula One World Championship title twice, and Rosberg won the title once.

What happened to Michael Schumacher?

FAQs: – Q1. What record does Michael Schumacher hold? A2. Michael Schumacher won the Formula One World Championship seven times, a record yet to be broken. Q2. What happened to Michael Schumacher? A2. Michael Schumacher fell on the ground and hit a rock while skiing in the Alps in 2013.

1. He got near fatally wounded, He was put in a medically-induced coma for 250 days before the doctors allowed him to go home.
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What Jeremy Clarkson said about Lewis Hamilton

Jeremy Clarkson’s tongue has made a habit of digging him into a hole over the years, with his observations on Meghan Markle recently landing the former host of the BBC’s Top Gear in hot water. He may be a divisive character but Clarkson last week turned his focus on the shortcomings of Formula 1 (see our recommended section below), declaring the pinnacle of motor racing to be a poor spectator sport and questioning the modern emphasis on drivers managing their pace throughout races.

With these observations far more interesting than anything to come out of the mouths of former drivers masquerading as television pundits, here’s our collection of Clarkson’s best and most outrageous F1-related quotes “I like him. He’s far too small, obviously, and his haircut is ridiculous.” On former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone (2016) “There is nothing on your Vauxhall Astra that was developed in F1.

Nothing.” F1 engineers like to think the technology behind a race-winning F1 car eventually ends up on the road. Jezza disagrees (2016) “Every race weekend, Lewis Hamilton gets out of his car and thanks the crowd – presumably hoping we at home can’t hear them booing.” Such a great crowd here, how you guys doin’? (The Sun, 2021) “No, Toto.

We don’t care about digital. We just want to see a crash.” On Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff’s assertion that new F1 owners Liberty Media would transform the sport’s social media reach (2016) “People love Max Verstappen but they’ve taken a noisy dislike to Lewis. The problem is that Lewis has changed. When he first came on to the scene he was bright and talented and normal – and everyone loved him.

But then he decided to go woke and right-on and more politically correct than a student union AGM. After the murder of George Floyd, he had Mercedes paint the cars black, he talks about how he’s now green because he sold his jet and has urged everyone to be vegetarian.

All this might work well on social media but in the real world, where people live, it doesn’t work at all. And this is a problem for the green movement. They get Lewis to be a mouthpiece thinking he’ll convert the rest of us. But instead, we all just want to throw something at him.” On Hamilton embracing a variety of causes over recent years (The Sun, 2021) “Andrew Lloyd Webber didn’t actually ask in so many words if Red Bull could improve its rear-wing design, but I could see he was thinking it.” On the Abu Dhabi title decider capturing the imagination of everyone, including theatre impresarios (2021) “You’ve got Lewis Hamilton, who is so hilariously on message, he’s off it.

He stands there with his serious tax-dodging but knighted face telling everyone to cut their emissions, while circumnavigating the globe so that he can race a 1,000-horsepower car that was sponsored by a company whose insulation was on Grenfell Tower.” Introducing the first of the title contenders (The Sunday Times, 2021) “Then there’s Max Verstappen, who’s a yob.

• His dad, Jos, a Dutch racing driver from the 1990s, was convicted of threatening his wife and violating a restraining order.” No bias here as Verstappen gets the Clarkson treatment too (The Sunday Times, 2021) “For what it’s worth, I think Max is probably better as a helmsman.
• He just seems to be able to get more out of the car than it is capable of delivering.

His qualifying lap in Saudi Arabia last weekend was probably the best driving I’ve seen. Right up to the point when he crashed.” On the greatest lap there never was by Verstappen in Jeddah (The Sunday Times, 2021) “I’m watching the cars on the road outside my house.

1. It’s more interesting than this Monaco shit show.” He wasn’t impressed with last year’s delayed race in Monaco (Twitter, 2022) “But when it comes to wheel-to-wheel racing, Lewis probably has the edge.
2. When the chips are down, he gets canny.
3. He’s cleverer.
4. More calculating.
5. So we have a battle of maths versus violence.

One of them is playing chess in Reykjavik and the other’s in a bare-knuckle cage on a hot night in Bangkok.” On the clash of styles between title rivals Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton (The Sunday Times, 2021) “The normal F1 coverage is awful. You have a bunch of guys in stupendously tight trousers talking for hours about what might happen before the race.

They’re so keen to demonstrate that they’re in the inner circle that they use the same terms as the teams use, and the same acronyms, seemingly unbothered by the fact that no one in the real world knows what deg is. And take those headphones off your head, and don’t wear such big microphone packs, you buffoons.” Wonder which TV pundits he’s referring to (The Sunday Times, 2021) “When they finally shut up, we get a terrible rendition of the host country’s turgid national anthem, followed by a frantic first corner, followed by a two-hour race that sounds like waves breaking on a beach.

It’s Mogadon with turbocharging and is so sonorous, I never, ever, get to lap three without falling asleep.” Not much to like about F1 really, is there? (The Sunday Times, 2021) “It showed us the glamour and the excitement, but it also showed us the warts and the STIs.” On the Netflix effect (The Sunday Times, 2021) “I hope you’ll forgive the rather rambling nature of this week’s column, but this is a sport I’ve loved all my life and for the first time ever it’s socially acceptable to talk about it.” Pre-Abu Dhabi (The Sunday Times, 2021) “It’s almost certain that you couldn’t put up a picture like that in the BBC today.

1. Drink, smoking, fast cars and girls are all not allowed.
2. And yet F1 has edged its way from those days to this weekend and survived.
3. Which means I can finish off now by saying loudly and proudly: go, Max.
4. You may be a Belgian yob, but I’m rooting for you, boy.” So he was on Max’s side after all (The Sunday Times, 2021) “That stewards’ decision is wrong.

It’s like the VAR handball. What is the point of these idiots?” During the Abu Dhabi decider (Twitter, 2021) “Delighted with the result but the stewards need to be banned. We’ve had enough of them. Very, very dignified from Lewis Hamilton.” After the Abu Dhabi decider (Twitter, 2021) “I wonder how many people would watch athletics if they thought half the competitors were not going as fast as they could.

• To prolong the life of their shoes.” On Red Bull and Mercedes drivers going as slowly as possible to protect their tyres in Saudi Arabia (The Sun, 2023) “This is the problem with Formula 1 as a live event.
• You have to be very lucky to see an incident, even if you do it’s usually over in a flash and there are no slow-motion replays to help you understand what caused it.

This, then, is a sport that has only ever really worked on television.” On the frustration of watching F1 from trackside (The Sunday Times, 2023) “In the first race, you overtook Eyebrow man.” Clarkson has a unique nickname for Fernando Alonso in conversation with Lewis Hamilton (Top Gear, 2007) “So who do you want to be your team-mate next year? I mean, somebody useless presumably?” To Hamilton on the identity of his 2008 team-mate (Top Gear, 2007) “When I go to Stamford Bridge, I want to see Chelsea win.

• But in F1 no one has ever really cared who gets to stand on the top step.
• And we’ve never really known the drivers because, unless they went on to be Michael Schumacher, they were just men in helmets with silly Eurotrash names.” On faceless F1 drivers (The Sunday Times, 2023) “After 1973 I don’t recall going to another race until Monaco in 1985.

And I missed that because I was in a police cell in in Cannes. I went again a few years ago to stay on a friend’s boat in the harbour, and missed it again because I overdid it the night before and overslept. It didn’t matter, though, because watching F1 live was dull.

And I didn’t care who won I still watched on TV every other Sunday, but deep down I knew it was a snorefest.” Watching the Monaco Grand Prix from a yacht in the harbour is a tough life, eh? (The Sunday Times, 2023) “I feel sorry for the poor chap these days. In the past he’d rush up and down the grid before the action started, trying to grab a few words with the Eurotrash-helmet men that no one at home knew.

But we do know them now, so there’s no point. And anyway he couldn’t find a driver even if he wanted to because, post-Netflix, the grid is now invariably filled to overflowing with bewildered celebrities who don’t know who he is. And who just want to meet that guy from Haas who swears a lot.” On the Netflix effect has changing Martin Brundle’s grid walk for the worse (The Sunday Times, 2023)

Why does The Stig not talk?

Creation and name – The idea for the character was part of former host Jeremy Clarkson ‘s and producer Andy Wilman ‘s concept for the relaunched Top Gear show, bringing a new format to the original version of Top Gear which ceased production in 2001.

• The relaunched show introduced a live studio audience, the Stig, a racetrack, and madcap stunts.
• Clarkson is credited with having come up with the original idea for the Stig.
• Clarkson and Wilman wanted to have a professional racing driver as part of the show’s cast, but ran into difficulty finding a driver sufficiently adept at speaking on-camera.

Clarkson then asked Wilman why the driver needed to speak at all, and they decided that the Stig’s role would be silent. The name Stig derives from Wilman and Clarkson’s time at Repton School, where new boys had always been called “Stig”. “Stig” is a prejorative referring to someone from a poor background with a poor dress sense (originating from the eponymous character in the children’s book Stig of the Dump ).

How much does The Stig get paid?

Top Gear Inc. From soap-on-a-rope to advent calendars, Top Gear tat is making millions – for everyone but the real star By Updated: 10:55 BST, 20 August 2010 At the end of his rope: The Stig is said to be frustrated at missing out on the Top Gear merchandising bonanza He has long hidden his true identity behind his white helmet and darkened visor. But beneath his trademark disguise, The Stig is not a happy chappie.

For Top Gear’s famously incognito ‘Tame Racing driver’ has locked legal horns with the BBC because he wants to write his tell all autobiography. This, of course, would entail him revealing who he really is, which the BBC claims is a breach of his contract. Since 2003, the speedster has been a hugely popular f ixture of the show.

only the producers and presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard hammond and James May know who he really is. It’s little wonder that now The Stig wants to cash in on his own celebrity status. he has only ever been paid a flat fee of somewhere between £5,000 and £10,000 per episode – a pittance compared with Clarkson, who is reported to make about £2 million a year.

Clarkson is also part- owner of a company that shares the Top Gear dividends with the BBC – a company that had a turnover of £24million last year. To its fans, Top Gear might be a Ferrari of a show, to its detractors a Cortina-esque dinosaur – but to its accountants, investors and to the BBC it’s a juggernaut of a money machine.SInce 1994, long-distance lorry drivers and cabbies have been able to purchase THE STIG

When it comes to the ‘Top Gear’ brand, it’s not Jeremy Clarkson’s craggy face that sells. nor even Richard Hammond slightly cuter features. It’s The Stig’s anonymous mask. If there’s a Top Gear novelty product to be had, it’s certain to have The Stig on it.

No wonder Stig’s annoyed he can’t cash in on his own image. But Top Gear fans will be delighted to learn – if they didn’t know already – that you can buy a Stig soap-on-a-rope for £3.50, or spend £13.10 on a speaking bendy-limbed Stig doll. Stig toiletry bags (£12.99), alarm clocks (£20), umbrellas (£24.99), lunch boxes (£11.99), remote-controlled cars (£29.99), duvet covers (£21.75), computer mouse mats (£8.95), posters (£9.95), a squashy stress toy shaped as the Stig (£7.49), torch and floating pen sets (£14.95),

,you name it, there’s a Stig-branded product to buy. But perhaps the best is a ‘Stiggy Bank’ – a ceramic money bank shaped as the Stig’s head. now we know where Clarkson keeps his cash. THE PROGRAMME Top Gear is now a worldwide phenomenon. It began life in 1978 as a somewhat staid, formulaic half-hour magazine show, reviewing cars and looking at road safety issues. World domination: The gang includes, from left, Richard Hammond, The Stig, James May and Jeremy Clarkson The production team defected to Five, where the show was re-launched as Fifth Gear – but the Beeb always retained the rights to the ‘Top Gear’ name because it still published the same-titled magazine.

1. A year later, the BBC rehired Clarkson and series editor andy Wilman after hearing their turbo-charged, testosterone-fuelled vision of a new ‘ Top Gear ‘ and spot t ing the potential.
2. In terms of money-making, it was one of the best decisions the BBC has ever made.
3. Last year, Top Gear was BBC Worldwide’s biggest-selling TV show.

It’s now seen in 100 countries and has a global viewing figure of 350 million. THE MAGAZINE Launched in October 1993 and selling about 200,000 copies a month, Top Gear magazine has been the uK’s top selling general interest car magazine for years – never mind the foreign language editions that are published all over the globe from Greece to South Korea; Russia to New Zealand; Poland to the Philippines. Spin off: Top Gear Challenges DVDs include ‘adrenaline-fuelled romps’ for committed fans FROM BOOKS TO CDs SInce 1994, long-distance lorry drivers and cabbies have been able to purchase their very own road-cruising soundtracks, with the release of umpteen Top Gear compilation CDs From Top Gear Rally for the wannabe F1 roadsters to the snazzily titled Top Gear Seriously Rock ‘n’ Roll, every seriously uncool middle of the-road track in recent memory has been rebranded under the Top Gear umbrella – making serious profits in the process.

• And when it comes to literature, Clarkson, May and Hammond have all made tidy sums from spin- off publications, whether it’s Top Gear annuals, 100 Fastest Cars, or ‘Best Bits’ books, reflecting the show’s highlights.
• But The Stig surely has outsold all of these with a reworking of the classic Where’s Wally? children’s books, with Where’s Stig? Costing £4.99, it’s a must for mini-petrolheads everywhere.

and yes, the Stig doesn’t get a penny from it. CALENDARS Last year, Marks & Spencer broke new ground by stocking a Top Gear advent calendar. Instead of traditional religious pictures, each door revealed a Top Gear themed chocolate – and a previously ‘unknown’ fact about the Stig.

• For just under a fiver, Top Gear fans everywhere could count down to Christmas with the help of their favourite petrolheads.
• And you can mark every day of the year on a Top Gear Calendar, featuring Stig on the cover, with each month illustrated by a variety of speedy motors, car crashes and the Top Gear three themselves – all for just £5.99.

TOP GEAR – LIVE! Surprisingly, it was only in 2008 that Top Gear made the move from small screen to big stage. We might not have experienced Top Gear: The Musical just yet, but we have got Top Gear – Live! When Clarkson and the gang headlined the show’s first live incarnation two years ago, it attracted far more than just a few motor enthusiasts, as some might have expected. Something for everyone: Scalextric Top Gear ‘Powerlaps’, at £110, gives enthusiasts the opportunity to put their driving skills to the test This affords you a nice enclosure and the opportunity of a behindthescenes tour of ‘Top Gear – Live’. That’s dad’s birthday present sorted then,

1. FRoM boys’ toys to kids’ toys, the Top Gear marketing engine hasn’t just got grown men cornered, but youngsters too.
2. You could buy a basic Top Gear Scalextric set for £89.99.
3. And in January this year, Top Gear: Turbo Challenge magazine was launched for children – a fortnightly publication at £2.50 a pop with games, strips and trading cards to collect and swap.

To amass the whole set would clear out most piggy banks – £792, enough to keep Clarkson in stone-washed jeans. : Top Gear Inc. From soap-on-a-rope to advent calendars, Top Gear tat is making millions – for everyone but the real star

Is Ben Collins friends with Jeremy Clarkson

Ben ‘The Stig’ Collins says Top Gear doesn’t need Jeremy Clarkson

Racing driver, The Stig on for eight years, has said that the motoring show will “always continue” with or without its suspended host,Collins, who left in 2011 after his own clash with the BBC, insists that fans love the programme “for lots of different reasons” and that it cannot be “only anchored in one person”.”Top Gear has achieved huge status and Jeremy has certainly been part of that because he’s got such a big personality, he’s an unstoppable force,” he told Radio Times magazine.

“But the Bond franchisechanges and moves forward. Top Gear will always continue, it will carry on and continue to be successful because millions of people watch it. Things will evolve one way or the other.” An investigation is currently underway after, reportedly over a steak dinner.

• It is not yet known when a verdict is expected on his future with Top Gear.
• Collins departed the BBC amid controversy himself, when the broadcaster launched legal action over his decision to unmask his identity and publish an autobiography.
• It failed to win the case but Clarkson was apparently unsupportive throughout.

“I handed in my notice and had discussions with the BBC and they decided to go to court, which was a real shame and not what I wanted,” he said. “Was Jeremy supportive? No, he wasn’t. We haven’t spoken since. But I get on really well now with the guy that hired me (executive producer and Clarkson’s close friend Andy Wilman) and I’m really delighted about that.” Collins said last year that Top Gear had “lost some its sparkle” and become “a bit same-same”. Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Access unlimited streaming of movies and TV shows with Amazon Prime Video Sign up now for a 30-day free trial Collins’ take on Clarkson stands in contrast to that of, The Stig for the first two series, who believes a Top Gear without him would be a “damaged goods”.