The original Stig from Top Gear has opened up about Michael Schumacher and the time he 'revealed' himself as The Stig on the show.
Perry McCarthy was Top Gear's first Stig, who wore a black suit and helmet, but his iteration of the show's tame racing driver was 'killed' driving off an aircraft carrier at high speed.
Obviously part of the fun with The Stig was wondering just who it was under that racing helmet, and in 2009 there were plenty of rumours swirling around as to who it might be.
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With that in mind, The Stig was finally invited to be a guest for Top Gear's 'star in a reasonably priced car' segment, and he took off his helmet to reveal he was none other than F1 legend Michael Schumacher.
Or perhaps not, as the lap 'The Stig' then did was terrible to the point of slapstick, as Schumacher appeared to lose his way on the track, and that version of The Stig was Ben Collins anyway.
As for how it all came together, Perry McCarthy told LADbible all about it and how he reacted when Schumacher lifted the iconic white helmet to reveal his own face was beneath it.
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Speaking to us for OLBG, the first Stig explained that Schumacher got involved with Top Gear when they wanted to test the Ferrari FXX.
McCarthy explained that the F1 legend came with the car 'as part and parcel', suspecting that Ferrari didn't want anyone else but him behind the wheel of their supercar.
"Michael did these screaming laps and drove with such beauty and precision," McCarthy told LADbible of watching the moment the FXX was tested on the Top Gear track.
"I was not Stiggy by this particular time that Michael came into it but I remember seeing it on television and I was thinking 'that's not The Stig by the way that guy was driving'.
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"I absolutely honestly did, but I didn't know who it was. Then, of course, when they revealed Michael what really cracked me up was evidence of Michael's sense of humour. "
The first ever Stig went on to explain that he found Schumacher to have 'a real big heart', and felt 'you could see the joy he had when he lifted the white Stig crash helmet'.
What he found even funnier was all the people claiming they'd known it was Schumacher all along.
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McCarthy remembered thinking of the people who said Schumacher was definitely The Stig: "Not really, you're not worth several hundred million dollars and then you turn up at Dunsfold every Wednesday morning working for the BBC."
In the end, he found it to be 'a great gag', saying he'd always been a fan of Schumacher's.
The pair met a few times over the years and McCarthy said that Schumacher's sense of humour and caring nature came across on the handful of occasions they did get to meet.
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McCarthy also told LADbible that he believed Schumacher was so successful in Formula One as he had an 'exceptional' commitment to racing.
The first Stig said that the F1 legend was 'one of the very last people to leave a garage or pit at night time at a race circuit', and praised him for the years he spent at Ferrari building their F1 team up before enjoying years of dominance.
He said: "What people just don't think about when talking about all his success is that he worked massively hard.
"All of those years before 2000 to assemble that team, get it right, build it around him and lead. That is the job of a great racing driver.
"There was a lot of work behind the scenes and that is part and parcel of who Michael Schumacher was, he didn't throw the toys out of the pram within the first year or second year, it wasn't actually going very well in third year.
"That was the commitment to building something special."
Perry McCarthy also said he believed Schumacher had it in him to be an 'incredible ambassador' outside of motorsport, highlighting the work he'd done with UNESCO and the money he'd given to charity.
Topics: BBC, Cars, Celebrity, Formula 1, Sport, TV and Film, Top Gear, Michael Schumacher
Joe Harker