Michael Schumacher starred on Top Gear 14 years ago where he appeared to reveal himself as the famous Stig.10:44, Mon, Feb 5, 2024 | UPDATED: 11:20, Mon, Feb 5, 2024 Show  The ex-Top Gesr Stig has revealed Michael Schumacher 'refused' to take part in a popular show segment (Image: Getty ) Former Top Gear Stig Ben Collins has revealed Michael Schumacher “refused” to take part in one of the series most popular segments. The seven-time F1 champion allegedly snubbed the chance to drive the famous Top Gear test track as the ‘Star in a Reasonably Priced Car’. The skit put celebrities behind the wheel of an ordinary road car with their fastest lap times collated on a leaderboard. Producers allowed F1 drivers to have their own exclusive timing sheet with the Suzuki Liana retained as the vehicle of choice from the 2002 series. Despite world champions Lewis Hamilton, Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill giving it a spin before Schumacher went on the show, the German star supposedly turned down the chance to take them on. Schumacher stunned audiences when he supposedly revealed himself as the Stig back in 2009 (Image: BBC ) Speaking to DriveTribe, Ben said: “I think he wouldn't do it. He refused. Probably sensibly. Do any of the F1 drivers need to do it? I think a lot of the guys jumped in and thought they can drive the wheels off anything this will be no different. "But [Sebastian] Vettel for instance brought a tyre pressure gauge to check it out. These were not looked after by a Formula One team. “They literally had the wheels driven off them, they got put away, they never check the tyres, they never looked at the tyre pressures. So you could easily go out in something that was ill-prepared and be a second off the pace. “So Vettel took it quite seriously and Schumacher just looked at it and said no that's not for me.” Schumacher was interviewed by Jeremy Clarkson when he starred on the show (Image: BBC) Become an Express Premium member
Daniel Ricciardo and Hamilton topped the leaderboard with both setting a 1:42.9 on their runs. Mark Webber sits third with a 1:43.1 while four-time world champion Vettel lies P4 within a 1:44.0. Rubens Barrichello was next with a 1:44.3 followed by Ben’s time as the Stig in fifth. Schumacher was interviewed on Top Gear back in 2009 with the ex-Ferrari star supposedly revealing himself as The Stig. It came amid widespread speculation about who the popular character was with his real identity closely protected. TrendingBut, ex-racing star Ben Collins revealed himself as the character in his autobiography ‘The Man in the White Suit’ which was released in 2010. After announcing his role, Ben left Top Gear and was never given the chance to show fans his real identity. When asked if he wanted a chance to replicate Shcianher’s helmet-loft moment, Ben replied: “That could have been really cool. That would have been a cool way to do it. But it didn't go that way.” He added: “I’d talked to my boss Andy Willman and explained I was going to leave at the end of that series, so I finished the series out and then it was down to them which way it was going to go. “In the end, it unfortunately went the legal route which was pretty painful but that ended up taking on its own sort of melodrama. At the time it was very scary and very real. “It would have been nice but actually seeing Schumacher do his bit was fantastic and having him there for the day was amazing. I didn't know what was happening until I got there.” 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 real Stig in Top Gear?Racing driver Perry McCarthy appeared in 22 Top Gear episodes as the black-suited, original Stig. McCarthy was cast as the Stig following a chance meeting with Jeremy Clarkson at the 2002 launch party for McCarthy's autobiography, Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!. Who were the three Stigs on Top Gear?Following Perry McCarthy and Ben Collins outing themselves as the first two incarnations of The Stig, it is strongly believed that the race driver portraying the third and so far, longest lasting incarnation of The Stig since 2010 is Phil Keen. What episode of Top Gear is Michael Schumacher on?Michael Schumacher - Top Gear (Series 13, Episode 1) - Apple TV (UK) Who was revealed as The Stig?the Stig removed his helmet to reveal himself as seven-time world champion F1 driver Michael Schumacher. In the subsequent interview, Schumacher exhibited some of the Stig's supposedly defining character traits, such as knowing only two facts about ducks (both "facts" being wrong). |
