The Stig: every racing driver behind Top Gear’s helmet
The Stig is the silent racing driver in a white suit and helmet on the BBC’s Top Gear, created by Jeremy Clarkson and producer Andy Wilman for the show’s relaunch in 2002 to set lap times and coach the celebrity guests. Four racing drivers have been named as the Stig: Perry McCarthy, the black-suited original of 2002 and 2003; Ben Collins, from 2003 to 2010; Phil Keen, named by Clarkson in September 2024; and Paul Rees, who said in July 2026 that he was the Stig in the passenger seat when Andrew Flintoff crashed in December 2022.
The BBC rested Top Gear in November 2023 and confirmed in August 2026 that it is coming back. The character carries on: in 2024 and 2025 the Stig lapped cars for Top Gear’s Stig Laps videos, and in 2025 he took the outright record at the Top Gear test track in a McMurtry Spéirling.
Who has played the Stig?
Four drivers have been named as the regular Stig, and at least three others took the helmet, or the job, for a single occasion. The BBC has not confirmed any of the names.
| Driver | Suit | Years | How the name came out |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perry McCarthy | Black | 2002–2003, 22 episodes | Named by the Sunday Mirror in 2003; confirmed in his autobiography |
| Ben Collins | White | November 2003 – 2010 | His autobiography The Man in the White Suit, after the BBC failed to stop it in the High Court on 1 September 2010 |
| Phil Keen | White | From 2010 (Clarkson: until the last programme in 2022) | Named by Jeremy Clarkson in September 2024 |
| Paul Rees | White | The Stig on 13 December 2022, the day of the Flintoff crash | Gave his account to The Sun in July 2026, as he sued BBC Studios |
| Michael Schumacher | White | One lap, broadcast 21 June 2009 | Took the helmet off in the studio; a Top Gear spokesman confirmed he drove the Ferrari FXX lap only |
| Heikki Kovalainen | White | One lap, 2004 | Reported to have driven the Renault R24 Formula One car while Renault’s test driver |
| Tiff Needell | None | December 2010 | Coached Danny Boyle round the track while the role was empty, as a Top Gear spokesman told the Mirror |
The count has never been tidy. When the papers named Collins in early 2009, a BBC source told the Daily Mail that “there are currently four Stigs who drive on the test track”, because one driver could not cover all the Stig’s commitments, Crash.net reported. In September 2024 Clarkson gave three names: “The original Stig was Perry McCarthy, followed by Ben Collins, followed by Phil Keen.”
How the Stig was created
The Stig was part of the format Clarkson and Wilman wrote when the BBC threatened to close Top Gear in 2001: a relaunched programme, first shown in 2002, with an anonymous racing driver to drive the cars fast. Clarkson had presented the original Top Gear from 1988 to 2000, The National’s 2010 history of the character records. On the first programme Clarkson introduced the driver as an “it”: “We don’t know its name, and we don’t want to know”. Its job was to “just go out there and drive fast”.
Why is he called the Stig?
The name comes from Repton School in Derbyshire, where Clarkson and Wilman met as 12-year-olds and where all new boys were known as “Stigs” (The National, 2010). McCarthy’s account is that the first choice was ruder. Clarkson told him, McCarthy said to the Mirror in August 2010: “We need a racing driver called The Gimp. Do you fancy it?” McCarthy refused the name, and Clarkson came back a day later with the Stig.
What does the Stig do on Top Gear?
The Stig sets the benchmark lap time for each car the programme tests, on the 1.75-mile figure-of-eight course at Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey, and teaches each celebrity guest the track for the Star in a Reasonably Priced Car segment. He never speaks on screen. When the Stig went to the National Television Awards in October 2008 to collect Top Gear’s third award in a row for most popular factual programme, he picked up the prize because the presenters were away filming, BBC News reported, and handed over a letter from them instead of a speech.
His lap in the reasonably priced car, a Suzuki Liana, was 1 min 44.4 sec. It stood until July 2010, when Rubens Barrichello, then driving for Williams, went a tenth of a second faster (The National, 2010).
Perry McCarthy, the black Stig
The first Stig was Perry McCarthy, a British former Formula One and Le Mans driver, in a black suit and helmet, for the first two series in 2002 and 2003: 22 episodes in all, according to The Telegraph in January 2009. Clarkson signed him up after they met at a party in 2002 (Mirror, 2010), the year McCarthy published his autobiography, Flat Out, Flat Broke: Formula 1 the Hard Way!
Perry McCarthy’s racing career
McCarthy’s only season in Formula One was 1992, with Andrea Moda, and he never qualified for a Grand Prix. His first attempt, in Spain, ended about 20 yards past the pit exit, when the engine stopped. At Silverstone the team sent him out on worn rain tyres on a dry track, and in Hungary he was let out 45 seconds before the end of pre-qualifying, too late for a flying lap, as F1 Forgotten Drivers’ account of the season sets out. At Spa he went off when his steering stiffened: the rack had been taken from team-mate Roberto Moreno’s car.
McCarthy raced a Dodge Viper and then a Panoz at Le Mans, drove an Audi Sport UK R8C there in 1999 with Andy Wallace and James Weaver, and finished fifth at Sebring the same year with Emanuele Pirro and Frank Biela. In 2003 he was sixth at Sebring for Audi with Johnny Kane and Mika Salo (F1 Forgotten Drivers). By his own account he was “racing for Audi at the time, earning £200,000 a year” while he was the Stig (Mirror, 2010). He stopped racing at the end of 2004 after a major injury to his left shoulder, he told SkiddMark in 2010.
How the black Stig was unmasked
The Sunday Mirror named McCarthy as the Stig in 2003. At the time he would say only that he knew who the Stig was and would not comment further, The Telegraph recalled in 2009. The Telegraph (2010), The National (2010) and Crash.net (2009) all wrote that McCarthy then revealed the role in his autobiography and was dropped for it. McCarthy denies it: “Contrary to popular opinion, I didn’t out myself,” he told SkiddMark in 2010.
Killed off on HMS Invincible
The black Stig “died” at the start of series three, in the programme broadcast on 26 October 2003. He drove a tuned Jaguar XJ-S along the flight deck of the aircraft carrier HMS Invincible and off the end into the sea, and all that came up was one black glove (The National, 2010). Top Gear’s own website later called it “the film that set off a tsunami of complaints”. McCarthy’s version: “I still remember my grand finale, driving a Nitrox-powered Jag XJS round an aircraft carrier. But the brakes failed and I roared into the sea” (Mirror, 2010).
Why did Perry McCarthy leave Top Gear?
McCarthy has given two accounts. To the Mirror in August 2010 he said the pay was £700 a week, that a car owner had tried to sue him over a Jaguar that had belonged to the racing driver Duncan Hamilton and the BBC would not back him publicly because the Stig was meant to be anonymous, and that “they didn’t renew my contract”.
In late September 2010, after the High Court had refused to stop Ben Collins’s book, McCarthy told SkiddMark that he left by choice: he had only “a gentleman’s agreement” not to talk, “certain things within Top Gear weren’t working for me”, and “I decided to leave and we parted ways and that’s when the black Stig was killed.” Since Top Gear he has worked as an after-dinner and motivational speaker, and in 2010 he was looking after the young Australian driver Scott Pye in British Formula Ford.
Ben Collins, the first white Stig
The first white Stig was Ben Collins, a British racing and stunt driver, from 2 November 2003, the programme after the black Stig’s death, until 2010. His first lap was in a BMW M3 CSL, 1 min 28 sec in the wet, and his first celebrity pupil was Stephen Fry (The National, 2010).
Ben Collins’s racing and stunt career
Collins was born in Bristol and spent his first ten years in California, according to a BBC News profile in September 2010. He began racing in 1994, went through Formula Ford, Formula Vauxhall Junior and the Formula Opel Winter Series to Formula Three in 1996, and was the fastest in his class at the 2001 Le Mans 24 Hours. He won six of the 12 rounds of the European ASCAR oval series, tested Formula One cars and drove for an Australian V8 Supercars team in 2009. Away from racing he was Nicolas Cage’s stunt double in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) and Daniel Craig’s in the James Bond film Quantum of Solace (2008), and spent four years in the Army (BBC News).
Who did people think the Stig was?
Speculation ran for the whole of the Collins years, on the internet and in print: by 2010 the Stig had a Facebook page with more than 2.5 million fans and there was a “Who is the Stig?” iPhone app (The National, 2010). The papers named Damon Hill, Julian Bailey, Darren Turner, Allan McNish and Collins himself, and the Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay claimed to have played the part “on several occasions” (The Telegraph, January 2009). That month the News of the World put the Stig’s income at about £150,000 a year from Top Gear and stunt work. The Telegraph added in June 2009 that the stunt drivers Terry Grant and Russ Swift had also worn the overalls, and that a Swedish snowmobile champion, Dan Lang, was said to have jumped a snowmobile off a ski jump as the Stig. Other reports put the number of drivers at eight, among them Heikki Kovalainen, then Lewis Hamilton’s team-mate at McLaren.
Was Michael Schumacher the Stig?
Only for one lap. Clarkson wrote in his Sun column on 20 June 2009 that in the next programme the Stig “removes his helmet”, Top Gear’s blog reported. On 21 June, in the series 13 opener, the Stig lapped the track in a Ferrari FXX in 1 min 10.7 sec, walked into the studio and took off the helmet: it was Michael Schumacher. A Top Gear spokesman confirmed Schumacher had driven the Ferrari lap and said the identity of the driver at other times would remain “a mystery” (The Telegraph, June 2009). The programme then showed “Schumacher” driving the wrong way round the track, badly, and dismissed him as an impostor (The National, 2010).
The Man in the White Suit and the High Court
In August 2010 a newspaper reported that the accounts of Collins’s company, Collins Autosport, listed “driving services provided for the BBC, mainly in the Top Gear programme”, as The Telegraph summed up the saga; the BBC said that was “no surprise”, since Collins had “appeared numerous times on the programme”, as reported on 23 August 2010. The BBC then went to court to stop HarperCollins publishing Collins’s autobiography, The Man in the White Suit. On 27 August Andy Wilman wrote on Top Gear’s blog that “the Stig, the Tardis, the Blue Peter dog” belonged to the licence payer, and that BBC Worldwide was paying half the legal costs.
On 1 September 2010 Mr Justice Morgan refused the injunction, BBC News reported, after a hearing held in private. The BBC said it had acted “as we believe it is vital to protect the character of The Stig which ultimately belongs to the licence fee payer”. James May, a studio guest on BBC London that day, said he would take legal action of his own, “because I have been the Stig for the past seven years”. The BBC was thought to have spent up to £100,000 on the case, The Telegraph reported.
Was Ben Collins sacked?
Yes, according to Clarkson. On 7 September 2010 he said Collins was “history as far as we are concerned. He’s sacked”, and that he felt hurt: “he came round to my house and had drinks and all that time he was writing a book,” The Guardian reported. McCarthy, asked by SkiddMark the same month, said Collins had signed agreements he himself never had: “he has then broken that agreement, so … for me personally, that’s not the way I would do it.”
Phil Keen, the second white Stig
Phil Keen, a British GT racing driver, took over the white suit in 2010 and kept it, by Clarkson’s account, until Top Gear’s last programme in 2022. The new Stig first appeared in a Top Gear “Stig Farm” video in November 2010, made for the Top Gear Live shows at Earls Court, Top Gear’s website announced. In December 2010 Tiff Needell, a former Top Gear presenter, coached the film director Danny Boyle round the track; “Tiff, being an old friend of the show, offered to help out,” a spokesman told the Mirror.
Jeremy Clarkson’s 2024 reveal
Keen’s name stayed secret for 14 years. In September 2024, at a viewing party for the final episode of The Grand Tour, Clarkson named him, Driven reported; it was the first official word on the second white Stig.
Phil Keen’s racing record
Keen is one of the most successful drivers in the British GT Championship. In 2024 the championship’s own site credited him with a joint-record 19 overall race wins and three runner-up finishes in the GT3 standings; Driven credited him with 24 wins, 16 pole positions and “a championship title”. He returned full-time that year in 2 Seas Motorsport’s Mercedes-AMG alongside the 2022 champion, Ian Loggie.
Paul Rees and the Flintoff crash
Paul Rees, a Porsche Supercup driver, was the Stig in the passenger seat of the Morgan Super 3 that overturned with Andrew Flintoff at the wheel at Dunsfold on 13 December 2022, by his own account to The Sun in July 2026. He was giving Flintoff driving advice, LBC reported, and is suing BBC Studios for up to £150,000 for personal injury. Reports of his account differ on the helmet: autoevolution wrote that Rees, “in full character as The Stig”, had one on and that his suggestion that Flintoff wear one was brushed off, while LBC wrote that he “wasn’t wearing a helmet”. Rees said he broke his back and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, autoevolution reported.
BBC Studios denies negligence. Its defence, as autoevolution reported from the filing, says “the claimant wrongly informed the presenter that the Morgan would not turn over”; LBC reported that it blames Rees’s “faulty instructions” and says he did not complain of any injury after the accident. Flintoff reached a reported £9 million settlement with the BBC in 2023. Rees’s account puts him in the suit at the end of 2022, a period Clarkson’s 2024 list gave to Keen.
The Stig’s lap records on the Top Gear track
The Stig holds the outright record for the Top Gear test track: 55.9 sec in a McMurtry Spéirling Pure, announced in April 2025, 3.1 sec faster than the Renault Formula One car that had held it since 2004, RTÉ reported from the Press Association.
| Year | Car | Time | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | BMW M3 CSL | 1:28 (wet) | The first lap by the white Stig |
| Before 2010 | Suzuki Liana | 1:44.4 | Reasonably priced car benchmark, beaten by Rubens Barrichello in July 2010 |
| 2004 | Renault R24 (Formula One) | 0:59.0 | Outright record for more than 20 years; driver reported to be Heikki Kovalainen |
| 2009 | Ferrari FXX | 1:10.7 | Driven by Michael Schumacher; seven seconds faster than any car before it |
| 2024 | Koenigsegg Jesko Attack | 1:10.9 | Road-legal car record, four tenths faster than the Ferrari SF90 |
| 2025 | McMurtry Spéirling Pure | 0:55.9 | Outright record |
The Jesko Attack lap opened Top Gear’s Stig Laps series, in which “our tame, mute in a white suit” laps the fastest cars for a leaderboard, Top Gear wrote in 2024. The 2004 Renault lap was, according to Car Throttle, “apparently” driven by Kovalainen. After the Spéirling lap, Top Gear’s editor Jack Rix said: “It’s a record that might never be broken, unless any F1 teams are feeling brave?”
The Stig away from Top Gear
Before the 2008 British Grand Prix he drove a two-seat Formula One car round a wet Silverstone with a passenger who had paid £35,000 at a Great Ormond Street Hospital charity auction, Top Gear reported in July 2008. Fernando Alonso watched and said: “I’ve no idea who he is, but he’s definitely ex-F1.”
Top Gear Live
Ahead of Top Gear Live 2011 at ExCeL London he drove Chris Evans round the 100,000 m² venue in a 400 bhp London black cab built on a Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII, through service ramps and the underground car park, in 2 min 36 sec, SkiddMark reported in September 2011. Evans was booked for the show’s Star in a Reasonably Priced Car on 24 November.
Records and books
In March 2017 the Stig set a Guinness World Record of 100.336 mph in Colin Furze’s bumper car, a 1960s dodgem with a 600 cc Honda motorcycle engine, at Bentwaters Airfield in Suffolk, Top Gear reported. In 2018 the Stig became the hero of a children’s series that began with The Stig Plays a Dangerous Game, followed by The Stig Drives Again, Top Gear announced.
Is there a Stig now?
Yes, though not on television. The BBC rested Top Gear on 21 November 2023: “Given the exceptional circumstances, the BBC has decided to rest the UK show for the foreseeable future,” it said, adding that international formats, digital, magazines and licensing were unaffected, as Advanced Television reported. Stig Laps is a BBC Studios series on Top Gear’s YouTube channel (RTÉ, 2025).
On 27 August 2026 the BBC’s director of entertainment, Ed Havard, told the Edinburgh TV Festival that “Top Gear is coming back”, made by BBC Studios, Variety reported. He named no hosts and gave no date. The last presenting line-up, before the show was rested, was Flintoff, Paddy McGuinness and Chris Harris (Variety).
Questions
Does the Stig ever talk?
Not on screen. When the Stig collected Top Gear’s National Television Award in October 2008 he said nothing and handed over a letter from the presenters.
How much was the Stig paid?
Perry McCarthy told the Mirror in 2010 that the black Stig was paid £700 a week. In 2009 the News of the World put the white Stig’s income at about £150,000 a year from Top Gear and stunt work.
What helmet does the Stig wear?
A white Simpson full-face racing helmet with a dark or mirrored visor, worn with a white racing suit.
Was Damon Hill the Stig?
No. Hill, the 1996 Formula One world champion, was one of the drivers most often named by the papers, but none of the drivers since identified as the Stig is Hill.
How many episodes did the black Stig appear in?
Twenty-two, across the first two series in 2002 and 2003, before he was written out in the HMS Invincible film at the start of series three.
Where is the Top Gear test track?
At Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey. The track is a 1.75-mile figure of eight, and the Stig’s 55.9 sec in a McMurtry Spéirling is its outright record.
Did Ben Collins drive in James Bond films?
Yes. He was Daniel Craig’s stunt double in Quantum of Solace (2008), according to BBC News, and before that Nicolas Cage’s in National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007).
How fast did the Stig drive a bumper car?
100.336 mph, a Guinness World Record set in March 2017 at Bentwaters Airfield in Suffolk in Colin Furze’s dodgem, which had a 600 cc Honda motorcycle engine.
Sources
- The National, “Unmasking the driving force of Top Gear”, 28 August 2010: the relaunch, Repton, the HMS Invincible film, the first white Stig laps, the Liana time and the Schumacher episode.
- Mirror, “Secrets of the Stig: Perry McCarthy reveals all”, 21 August 2010: “The Gimp”, the £700 weekly fee, the Duncan Hamilton Jaguar and his exit.
- SkiddMark, “Interview with Perry McCarthy – The Original Stig”, September 2010: McCarthy on leaving Top Gear, on Ben Collins, his shoulder injury and Scott Pye.
- SkiddMark, “Top Gear’s Stig gives DJ Chris Evans a taxi ride to remember”, September 2011: the black cab at ExCeL London.
- Crash.net, “BBC reveals there are four Top Gear Stigs”, 2009: the BBC source on four Stigs and the 22 programmes of the black Stig.
- The Telegraph, “Top Gear’s The Stig revealed as married man ‘who drives boring car’”, January 2009: the News of the World claims and McCarthy’s 22 programmes.
- The Telegraph, “Top Gear’s The Stig: conspiracy theories over mystery driver’s identity”, January 2009: the Sunday Mirror naming of McCarthy, the suspects and Jay Kay’s claim.
- The Telegraph, “Top Gear: who really is The Stig?”, June 2009: the Ferrari FXX lap, the spokesman’s statement and the stunt drivers.
- Top Gear blog, “JC: Stig to remove helmet”, 20 June 2009: Clarkson’s Sun column.
- Top Gear, “The Stig – HMS Invincible” video page, archived October 2008: the black Stig’s exit.
- BBC News, “Cowell wins recognition TV award”, October 2008: the Stig at the National Television Awards.
- Top Gear, “The Stig v F1”, 11 July 2008: the Silverstone charity ride and Alonso’s remark.
- Top Gear blog, Andy Wilman, “The Stig: he is ours”, 27 August 2010: the BBC’s case and BBC Worldwide’s share of the costs.
- BBC News, “Top Gear Stig legal wrangle goes to court”, 23 August 2010: the BBC’s “no surprise” statement on Collins Autosport.
- BBC News, “Stig court case: BBC loses battle over Ben Collins book”, 1 September 2010: the High Court ruling, the BBC statement and James May.
- BBC News, “Profile: Ben Collins”, September 2010: Collins’s racing, film and Army career.
- The Telegraph, “The Stig: Ben Collins could become face of new Top Gear style TV show”, September 2010: the BBC’s legal costs and McCarthy’s autobiography.
- The Telegraph, “Top Gear: the seven-year saga of The Stig”, September 2010: the Collins Autosport accounts.
- The Guardian, “Jeremy Clarkson: the Stig is ‘sacked’”, 7 September 2010: Clarkson on Collins.
- Top Gear, “The Stig farm: video footage released”, November 2010: the new Stig for Top Gear Live.
- Mirror, “Top Gear’s new Stig is… Tiff Needell”, 17 December 2010: Needell and Danny Boyle.
- F1 Forgotten Drivers, “Perry McCarthy”: McCarthy’s 1992 Andrea Moda season and sports car results.
- Driven (NZME), “Jeremy Clarkson reveals secret identity of third and final Stig”, 26 September 2024: Clarkson naming Phil Keen.
- British GT Championship, “Keen set for British GT comeback alongside Loggie at 2 Seas”, 2024: Keen’s 19 wins and three GT3 runner-up finishes.
- Top Gear, “The Koenigsegg Jesko Attack has set a new road car record around the TG track”, 2024: the 1:10.9 lap and Stig Laps.
- RTÉ / Press Association, “Top Gear driver The Stig breaks ‘untouchable’ record”, 11 April 2025: the Spéirling and Renault R24 laps.
- Car Throttle, “The McMurtry Spéirling just smashed the Top Gear track record”, 2025: Kovalainen and the R24 lap.
- Top Gear, “100mph in a dodgem: The Stig has set a new world record!”, 30 March 2017: the bumper car record.
- Top Gear, “An exclusive look at The Stig’s brand new book!”, 2018: the children’s books.
- Advanced Television, “BBC puts Top Gear on ice”, 21 November 2023: the BBC statement resting the programme.
- LBC, “Top Gear legend The Stig unmasked…”, 23 July 2026: Paul Rees, the crash date, the claim and the BBC Studios defence.
- autoevolution, “Passenger in Freddie Flintoff’s Top Gear crash was The Stig”, 24 July 2026: Rees’s injuries and the helmet.
- Variety, “‘Top Gear’ to return, BBC confirms”, 28 August 2026: Ed Havard at the Edinburgh TV Festival.