Wer ist the stig von top gear

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.

Michael Schumacher made a cameo on the British TV show Top Gear as ‘The Stig’ after the show received special instructions from Ferrari.

In 2009, Michael Schumacher made a special appearance on the British TV show Top Gear, which left everyone Buzzing. In Season 13’s Episode 1, Michael was unveiled as the ‘The Stig.’

‘The Stig’ is a mysterious test driver in the show whose identity has remained anonymous. Around the season premiere, host Jeremy Clarkson wrote in his newspaper column that they would reveal who Stig is.

In this episode, one of the cars reviewed was the Ferrari FXX. The Stig would test the supercar setting a record lap time of 1:10.7. After this, The  Stig would walk into the studio.

Clarkson claimed the Stig was “fed up with newspapers speculating that he’s a photocopier salesman from Bolton. Or lives in a pebble-dashed house in Bristol.” He would welcome the driver to the couch.

Clarkson later asks the driver to reveal who he is by removing his white helmet. Stig is reluctant but later reveals himself while the crowd chants ”Off! Off!” in unison.

And to everyone’s surprise, Stig was none other than the 7-time World Champion Michael Schumacher. Schumacher had just retired from F1 at the end of the 2006 season.

However, the BBC later revealed that he was not the ‘Stig’, and this was merely a publicity stunt to boost the ratings of the show. Stig is just a character. “I don’t think Michael Schumacher is The Stig. I think we made it up,” clarified Clarkson.

Also Read: Seven-time World Champion stores collection of some of the best F1 and supercars around

Is Michael Schumacher ‘The Stig’?

Michael Schumacher’s appearance as ‘The Stig’ was just a performance. The character was played by Ben Collins, a former racing driver who revealed it in his autobiography, ‘The Man in the White Suit.’

But the reason why Schumacher was ‘revealed’ as the all-white driver runs beyond just a publicity stunt. And this includes special orders from Ferrari themselves.

One of the cars tested during the episode was a black Ferrari FXX. The Ferrari FXX is a high-performance race car produced by Ferrari in 2005.

Ferrari only built 30 of these exclusive cars, and one special car was gifted to 7-time World Champion Schumacher. Schumacher won 5 successive championship titles with Ferrari from 2000 to 2004.

And this 6.2-liter V-12 with 809 horsepower car was supposed to be a token of appreciation for his achievements. It is the only all-black FXX and has been specially made for the German race driver.

It has red trimmed wheels, matte exhaust tips and his personal logo stitched on the racing seats.  The car can go from 0-100km/h in 2.7 seconds and has a top speed of 345 km/h.

Michael takes Zinedine Zidane for a drive in his @Ferrari FXX around the circuit in Magny-Cours on 30/6/07 #TeamMichael #KeepFighting pic.twitter.com/N7r0OiJXE8

— Michael Schumacher (@schumacher) June 30, 2017

When BBC approached Ferrari to test their supercar in Top Gear, the Italians rejected it. However, rumour goes that Schumacher was invited to the show to drive his FXX.

Ferrari allowed Schumi to drive the car. But because he was the car’s owner, Ferrari wouldn’t allow anyone but him to drive the car. And Top Gear, therefore, framed the show.

Following the stunt, Michael sat down with the show’s host Jeremy Clarkson for an interview. But this will forever be one of the greatest PR stunts in Television history.

Also Read: Michael Schumacher race-winning Ferrari F300 sells for $6.2 Million

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