The real reason Michael Schumacher pretended to be The Stig

It was perhaps the most iconic moment of the Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May era of Top Gear. 

For everything they did with, and to, cars, the most iconic moment came in their old aircraft hanger at Dunsfold, near London Gatwick airport, and it involved Michael Schumacher as The Stig.

The Stig famously did not speak as he lapped the high-performance cars shown on the programme and then acted as a driver coach to the guest celebrity for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment. 

The first Stig, black Stig, was ex-F1 racer Perry McCarthy, and when he was 'killed off', white Stig replaced him - who turned out to be Ben Collins, a high-performance stunt driver who has filled in on James Bond films for Daniel Craig. 

But in Series 13, episode 1 broadcast in June 2009, Schumacher was purported to be The Stig after weeks of revelations in the UK tabloid press about the tame racing driver's true identity.

The Stig was shown to enter the studio, and after some gentle encouragement, revealed himself to be Schumacher. 

Or so it seemed.

It turned out that Ferrari would only allow Schumacher to lap the FXX supercar around Dunsfold, meaning Collins was benched. 

Schumacher roared to the top of the power board times with a 1:10.7 but the time was subsequently removed as it was completed on slick racing tyres and not grooved road tyres as per the rules. 

In case you're wondering, Fiat, shareholders in Ferrari, blocked Schumacher from driving the Suzuki Liana reasonably priced car to post a lap alongside the fellow F1 drivers who appeared on the show. 

The Liana was specially reserved for F1 drivers to ensure equal equipment as the regular celebrity car changed, with Daniel Ricciardo ultimately ending fastest by the time Clarkson, Hammond, and May left.

Collins would remain as The Stig until 2010 when he revealed his identity and a new white Stig was brought in. His identity was never revealed, but Clarkson said in 2024 after the showing of the final episode of The Grand Tour that British GT racer Phil Keen was The Stig.