Meet My Top Gear Boss: ANDY WILMAN

I ate the stick well mind you at least we know his real name now What Judas es scariot Ben Collins can now release his story of seven years as the show's mystery test driver do you want to take this opportunity because they'll be watching do you want to apologize to them now no some say that he's recently been releasing pop records under the pseudonym of lady garar all we know is he's called the St welcome to sunsay which is my podcast about fascinating car stories and today I'm joined by The Godfather of Top Gear Andy Wilman did you do that with your hands every time I just did with I just did it with my hands nobody knows what to do with their hands on TV that ask Jeremy about that it's true when you're doing a piece to camera what it's what I wish I could take them off like put them to one side I know not to shake your hand though cuz you hate that being on camera that was one of the one of the early rules I picked up from you don't sh shake hands just start talking oh no that's in a if you're if I'm cutting a film yeah there's always like people leave the bits where people go hi and walk in and sit down and it's like no [ __ ] that you sort of cover that in voiceover so you can get to the bit where they're actually sat and talking is that what you remember from I remember many 10 years with me I remember a lot of things but actually there's there's a million questions I've got I'd love to ask you but firstly I'm delighted that you've agreed to sort of have a chat delighted you asked after all this time and um and actually I was quite jealous when you had Porter and wisan Porter and wisman was like where my invite yeah well I was delighted that you you felt that way and to get you on yeah um what what I was going to say is you're well firstly who you are your position you're known for is executive producer of Top Gear and Grand Tour which I think confuses a lot of people because and including me when I actually attempted to get my CV on your desk I didn't know that it was you I had to go to I thought I'd be the director because you would assume most people think the director is the boss but actually the exact producer is I think only you were confused but there we go racing drivers and IQs match made in heaven yeah it's so you want to know what an exact producer is well I know now but I think most people would don't think most people think that you know Ridley Scott is in charge of the alien movie or they think you know it's going to be standing they're different to film and to television that's what I mean so yeah they are because you see all these dramas and film you see exact producer exact producer usually that's given to like what was I watching uh True Detective the new one with jod Foster and it says executive producer Woody harelson who was in the first true detect so he has some clearly ownership of that format and then you get that nominal title and paid or they'll make film stars except producers and it's another way of giving them some more money where whereas in Telly an exact producer is like the most senior producer so they're actually more Hands-On I think in America they call them showrunners so you do work you do actually do things and you oversee everything but uh you're struggling to explain it which is great because that that plays my point because well I think it's true for you is that you're you're much broer than producer and they're in charge but you're also the creative managing director hugely creative this was the 60s managing director well what I thought was you you've redefined what it means I think you because you're you you brought together these all these creative minds but your your passion is what has driven um top gear and pulled those people together well I kind of disagree harness their energy no no no no I disagree because you know like people ask how Jeremy and I work and I'd say if we were the analogy I would like to use which obviously I've never used it before Ben I've saved it up for your podcast is an arrow he is absolutely the tip of the arrow Jeremy's the best at having light bulb moments um there's no kind of presenter I know maybe people like Louis THU there's very few though who have so much involvement and control of editorial so he's there and I'm slightly behind in in the things we do together and have done together he's kind of yeah I'm happily slight behind so he has that thing like I'll punch through the wall we'll do this we do that and then I'm slightly behind and then I can help him I can make it all work or help him develop it so he came up with all the new Top Gear format you would say he's very good at sort of going right like the the new Top Gear back in 2000 he had the initial raft of ideas to change all that the big ones the big sort of light bulb moments and then once you go all right that's where we're going then we all contribute and then and then yes I then do build the kind of spaceship with all the people on it to keep it going to maintain it to keep it running to make it happen that's what exec producers do now where blow my own trumpet for a bit I'm different as an exact producer is I have remained at the coal face to a much more bigger degree than many exit producers because you start to become like I edit every film I sit down with the editor and we edit every film and I've always done that and I always will whereas when you become a kind of proper exit producer you come in and you look at a cut and then you give some comments and then you go and delegate do something else yeah and um but I do everything like the farm I've just finished with the editors editing every episode and we look at all the shots we do all the stuff and that's weird for an exec producer but I think what it's symptomatic of is that Jeremy and I everything we did grew organically and if if something comes up that's funky he's you're the first person he'll call to ask why is that in there well you know something that when you see it come out you you I know what you're like every second is you you're looking at every second of that footage because you care about that's every every minute of the 60 yeah um I remember at the BBC I was like when I got that role of exact producer they were like okay now you're an exact producer you need to take on two or three more shows and I was like no Top Gear is what we do um why would I take on Britain's biggest Paving slabs when I've got this to do was that an option some days I wished there certain people I could have dropped him on um but yeah it was like we do Top Gear and then obviously thank the [ __ ] it became huge so then you could leave us alone to do it and it was it was enough of a job to do that so the minute doing grand tour some of the farm the edit side of the farm um so this is the most expanded I've ever been in in those terms but it's still small for an exec producer they're three of the Bigg cold face cold face go three of the biggest series ever made aren't they top known worldwide half a billion viewers it's gigantic the back world biggest no most watched what was in the Guinness Book of Records most watched factual entertainment show in the world yes 74 countries probably more and counting it was more than that it would be yeah I've got so there's a there's a line here from Wikipedia that I wanted just to recycle just to go back to your origin story the worst research it's best it's really good everything's everything you need to know there's a line from Wikipedia it probably isn't true Andy Wilman is responsible for the creation of the Stig Wilman and clarkton both attended Repton School y along with Formula 1 designer Adrien Nei so everything happened there so is this this is this where you met Clarks and originally at school max for staing is where he is today because Jeremy and I in physics up adri Les yeah boys we were like you nerd get back to your have a wedgie was it physics you do with aerodynamics or biology no physics actually he was older than you he was older I don't remember him I think I arrived in like 1975 you and I were looking at the dates so I'd say Jeremy would known him he would have been older than Jeremy I think it was in the hall house there were nine houses with 50 Boys in each one and they were all spread throughout the village and I think he was in the hall uh and obviously he must have been clever and it's like you know how it is now you look at those people on super yachs now with 28 Russian models and they were always a [ __ ] computer nerd at school who you would laugh at and now they've got the private jet and everything so he was I don't know must have been good at physics and then what else happened stigs right so I'll fill in on the Stig how it happened we had when this is before Top Gear went on air so we're talking about 2001 and we were trying to work out Jeremy and I the like lineup of the show and we still had half aead back in the old Top Gear which was Quenton Tiff Jeremy Vicky that you know they were like they were the main quen and Tiff Jeremy and Tiff Barry is a racing driver who can speak who's intelligent a rare thing and he's going around doing his stuff and when we started to put the new one together we had Hammond we we'd hired him we had sort of Jason door then so you've got Jeremy Jason door Hammond got three people and we were still looking for a tiff a racing driver who could drive and speak and I was like I had this huge whiteboard which was like full Minority Report you know moving this around moving that around and we had it in the office and then Jeremy came in one evening and I was like [ __ ] arrows and writing everywhere and he's like what's occurring I was like I can't make this work if we're an hourong show and we're doing three films and in the studio I was like the three of you have all got to do something you Jason and Richard Hammond and and he's like so the racing driver what what the [ __ ] does he do I can't I can't I can't get a scenario even if we can find one who can speak which is rare what where do you put him what's he do yeah and jerem's like uh oh [ __ ] yeah I see what you mean and then he just like sat there and this is him he like hang on why does he need to speak and I was like what do you think what do you mean what you mean he was like he said I can do all that slidy stuff that Tiff does because I think Tiff taught him he said I could do the slidy [ __ ] with all the smoke coming off the tires he said but what I cannot do is what racing drivers do which is lap after lap tenth of a second tenth of a second Perfection I can't do it so he said so if we've got our track and we're going to do lap times and have a board a leader board because we knew early on that lists were important I think Kieran behind the camera here would agree men like lists top trumps top this top that top that men in particular if we're allowed to say that men and women have different kinds of ways of thinking men do like this Nick Hornby in um High Fidelity we I remember you see it there brilliantly it's like list top five list top albums D D D D so we were going to have the leader board because we thought people like list and then Jeremy went yeah why does he need to talk he was I'll slide about yada yada Smokey tires and then he went and I watched pul fiction the other night and you remember the [ __ ] who comes out of the cellar um with the mask on and he went we just keep the driver Anonymous and then people are try and guess who he is and he just and he never speaks and he just does a lap time and we'll call him the [ __ ] after Pulp Fiction great oh I was hoping you would say it related to Boba Fett from Star Wars who was quite a cool character who didn't talk as opposed to someone with a rubber ball in their mouth but you broen that who's having B sex on a daily basis so we were like this is like don't there was a Stig before you wasn't there yeah Perry so we said to Perry right you're going to be the the [ __ ] and he was like and you can [ __ ] off I'm not doing that I think he did all of you that followed a favor he did cuz he I'm not doing it I'm not I'm not going around being called the [ __ ] and we were like o that's a bit close to the bone look how much he's protesting so we then thought what and then again it was one of those moments where you go what do we do what do we do we're recording the uh the pilot and then Jeremy went Stig we call him Stig and then people went Stig of the dump and he went no we used to call stigs was like repon that was like a nickname for a new boy first year Stig so someone you can kick around no we didn't not in those days it's what you're thinking no no those days are gone there was I can prove it as well no like like r d went to repon and he wrote a short story called Galloping foxley and he's like a man on a train in the 1940s and he's looking at a man opposite he thinks oh he's that school bullied foxley who bullied me half to death at Repton and he used to he wrote how this guy foxy took a massive run through the changing rooms kids like you know when the prefects could still beat kids and then take a big whack and that what he described was like the changing rooms in our house cuz R Dal was in our house the prior and he hated Repton R Dal did obviously for those kind of reasons but then he came back when we were pupils there to give a talk and he always refused and he came back and he went this school is now brilliant in its atmosphere yeah the way the younger ones are looked after and all the rest of it it was a well they all got nicer you went to one and they all somewhere along the 70s they all sort of got nicer got more pastoral or what have you but a Stig was still the kid who was first year don't speak as spoken to Etc bit of that bit of that um nothing to do with the rally driver all about that but exactly people going stick of the dump stick Blomquist and we were like no now you can imagine BBC the way it is is linkon when you go oh it's the name for a new boy at a public school you can imagine how well that went down like people go okay like Executives go okay and then they go [ __ ] [ __ ] like Posh [ __ ] whatever it is that so that's how you got your name EXC okay all right yeah that's how you got your name well can thank Perry that you're a new boy didn't stay as the [ __ ] but no we can't I was going to ask you this because getting things commissioned and then keeping them on air is very precarious business the BBC being fairly woke organization ulot being fairly polar opposite the other way not not necessarily opposite but you don't obey the rules your your rule Breakers you Trend set you really say and do whatever you like I I'll never forget the PUO for instance the PUO estate the diesel which pojo decided not to give you the car cuz they knew that you didn't like it and it was going to get panned a slaugh right yeah so it didn't arrive at the studio and um I remember watching this from always used to watch the um the studio but I was fascinated by how it was all put together you got the side doing you've done your lap your CB I would Scuttle back Watch the watch how the power lap and the recorded everything the celeb's done for your book absolutely right make notes check what you have for breakfast and then I'd sit with Brian Klein and watch the studio and watch him move people about and how strategic it was and all that um but yeah you had the perso but you didn't have the perso and Jeremy goes we've got the next best thing and the camera pans down to the ground and there was a steel bucket of horseshit and I just thought wow this program is is edgy I mean there's no American series that could have done that anything with advertising attached to it everything with avertising Run for the hills it was a very interesting time those early days of that show cuz I'd still call that early days um and when we were still we I think we got lesson we reviewed cars less and less but we still thought we should in those days um but it was an interesting time because of all those dynamics of how you should be so let's deal with how we were with the BBC first massive juggling act for you yeah but we all took it like we all we didn't overthink that we just thought well we'll make the show we're going to make um now does Repton and our relationship from Repton come into that absolutely because a boarding school in the 70s Jeremy and I were not you know you're not looking at Brad Pit and Matt Damon it's like spotty flat ha gree you know you're looking at like OD dear the sort of the mingy one in in between us or something like that that is US you're no good at sport it's like how did you get popular how did you like impress the girls from the girl school and everything what were you too good at then and also he trou getting into trouble yeah so it's like clown about get into trouble get into trouble but to last to survive youve got into get into trouble with a certain amount of charm like you you don't bully or sort of burn something down it's charm I suppose like doing things that like I remember the art school was next door to our house and we watched the art school teacher build a kiln it took him like I mean now I think about it I'm like oh what a [ __ ] he built as in we are yes he built a kill and he took him all weekend with like bricks with air flow and all that kind of thing and then he went home Sunday evening very happy with his job and then we went out and rebuilt it into a throne and um I mean when I look back I'm like you [ __ ] Pricks he's done so much but at the time it was like teachers would hear about it and when then we had to own up that we've done it into trouble but they're like you know they've got a bit of a smile on their face like the notion that you've done something like this rearranged his Kil yeah so you can kind of if you have that attitude you can sort of truck along and I like to think that we had certain fans in the BBC who were wise up in the management who would go they're very conscious of BBC that they're always being asked to talk to all license payers with with their output with their content and we were doing that job we were talking to an audience that I don't think was brilliantly served because the BBC can be at its worst very kind of London and we were we were doing that job and then so a lot of people were very happy about that in the BBC some as we know later on were always unhappy with this but a lot got it and if we got into trouble and we were in the papers it was kind of charming trouble sometimes we [ __ ] up and it was like you stupid like Mexico was just awful we were that was shameful what we did because we were too full of ourselves at that point like but like kids you kind of lose the plot you know and then instead of running around you start breaking the furniture um and yeah so if we're driving a hcraft down a river and we drench everyone eating outside in a restaurant mail Daily Mail will report outrage outrage outrage but actually it's like quite funny yeah and well set up that one was but there was another one that oh Christ what was it Jeremy lurry drivers yeah lurry drivers are murderers now outrage outrage outrage from Daily Mail Etc but Eddie Stobart publicly supported as he went Larry drivers think this is [ __ ] hilarious you know so once that happens it just becomes like childish and it's forgotten so we were very good at that we were naturally good at that and I do believe that came from Repton and then um we got support from people in the BBC who would go it's the compliance people go it's okay to get complaints you just got to be able to defend them and we were very good at that and they used as an as example to other programs to go push yourselves more don't worry about complaints complaints are fine as long as you can defend them and we very very rarely got an upheld complaint which is upheld means a separate body like ofcom looks at it and goes no you were wrong we very rarely got one of those because we knew what we knew how to walk that line so that was us within the BBC then the carment industry at first because we were like we were some car companies were like shall we give them cars Jeremy's back you know cuz he' left topg his back and they're like Jesus shall we give them shall we give him cars and I remember Chris Willows from BMW they had a meeting at the smmt and it came up like do we support the show or not and people like Chris said yes he went if they trash a car just grin and bear it because we'll you'll make another one that's good and they'll like it they just grin and bear it and Chris's point was and some other manufacturers were like we need a show that celebrates cars that says it's okay to like cars and I think people were saying that our show's audience was getting broader and it was fun with cars it wasn't just a review show anymore and so clever manufacturers went yeah cars get celebrated it's okay to be a geek it's okay duh so we had builtin kind of protection things that we'd unwittingly done made does that make sense yeah makes a lot of sense yeah in but so you met Jeremy though when I mean at that stage because there's you probably are aware how many countless YouTubers you've inspired with huge channels and platforms like Freddy tarish Matt Armstrong drivve tribe all these all these different people channels that really got inspired to go out and do what you did from quite a young age because of Top Gear but did you know that this is what you wanted to do when you were a kid or I'm going to do something with Jeremy or when did that how did you get into even into a into TV or what was your career path we used to okay I'm going back to Repton there was like dormitories right and you sort of move around each you'll know this from your dormatory days of and you had to go to church on a Sunday morning but the mattresses in these [ __ ] beds were so old that there was like a sort of Valley in them like and you were like then the housem would come around he'd like check Sunday 10:00 you know check that say and if you like we were thinner then as well if you sort of lay really flat in the bed with like all the blankets up the [ __ ] dip in the mattress so much you could you weren't there and they s and Jeremy and I were in the same Dorry like six it was six and they were called he would have hung over the end wouldn't he with his legs I don't know how he did it I mean he got away with it but and the housem was doy but we were in B 6 cuz we were called Bas not dormitories we were in B 6 and he like so he comes in and like and he's like okay this one's empty and then it goes off so we can just then we can miss Chapel yeah smoke out of the window and just talk bollocks and we used to sort of plan like things we'd like to do but because you're like 15 or 16 or 17 or something like that all you want to do is like be a roadie for The Who that's all you haven't got any brains beyond that or I think Jeremy wanted to be jod sheer you know or Ronnie Peterson or something like that or no he wanted to be he wanted to be Elio deangeles so despite everything he's a frustrated racing driver yeah yeah he wanted to be Alo d'angel I think alang was like really like a concert pianist brilliant driver hot wife blah blah blah it's like that's good and then like or be a roie for The Who for Keith Moon and this that was our Ambitions and then when so we left school go separate ways he left a year before me we meet again in London he's already in print journalism motoring I'm literally rudderless I don't know what to do with my life cuz I keep trying things and failing um such as I went to acting school failed uh formed a band failed and then what were you doing in the band singing really was in the choir but it was all yeah and then when we came down to London it was like the clash and stuff like that anybody could form a band we saw The Clash me and my mates on the tube like day two in London and you go well this is it this is we are here this is perfect Joy Division are banging away up in Manchester buzzo King the cameraman's face from Manchester is like oh um and um yeah we were like I was trying all the things and failing then I went to University like late got a degree came back to London degree in what Russian and American studies ah the Russian came in later cuz you used that when you were on Top Gear as a presenter yes I did I saw that yes did I thought you just learned that no no no by then I knew like Russian up to like GCSE level so um and again Jeremy was like well you're quite funny you know how to right he goes be a journalist and I was like I can't be a journalist cuz 2,000 people apply only one gets picked he's and he was like [ __ ] all that just start writing um and he got me an interview with Auto Express and he's like I can't do any more than that I'll ask him to so I rang the guy from a phone box at Auto Express and I was like the editor Howard Walker it was lovely and Howard went so and I'd written a piece on spec and I sent it in and he went that's good piece good piece and he went so what else have you written I went um that I putting more temp PS into the phone box I was like that and he went oh right right right and he went so um but have you been in any other newspapers or what have you at all doing any reporting I was like no and he went but then clearly You' just finished journalism College I was like No And he went cars and I went uh and he was like this is really [ __ ] bad anyway anyway I like the piece so I'll take you on as a reporter for like six months and if you sink you sink if you swim you swim and he did that and I didn't sink so again I thank Jeremy for like Jeremy has that courage to go [ __ ] it go go go go yeah um whereas I'm quite like um and then once I was there and Jeremy was there we were he was like rising in Top Gear and I was specializing in writing features that weren't about cars but I was writing stories about motor in interesting motoring stuff like I found that Shake in the desert with the in Dubai with the huge pickup truck that was like a house it had bedrooms and stuff that he'd built I would go and find those things um because it had a story it wasn't just a yeah yeah cuz everyone everyone else taking care of the car test and then Jeremy gets the round about 93 he gets his first solo gig with the BBC which is Motor World where you go looking at car culture around the world and they're like who do you want to work on it with you and he went I want my mate Andy because the stories he's doing what that is car culture yeah more or less is look at the car culture and that's what I was doing so already with print so then we went and that show was a hit two series uh and we got like India Iceland Vietnam we went early doors when people didn't really know those countries and then you know we got a Monaco but we do how they put the Grand Prix together so was that show a hit cuz I I was I wasn't clear on how how old were you in '93 well I didn't see it then but I've watched it since I think it's a great show but I didn't well I enjoyed it but it didn't but it did stop and so I didn't know whether that meant that it it was a good show well we did two series and then we just ran out of countries where we thought we could do it anymore we were we done Cuba UAE and all that in the end and it was like right we'll end on a good one there so the two of you working together it stuck and it worked and it it really stuck and it really stuck and I didn't know what a producer did I to get me to leave print I said to Top Gear okay but I want the title of producer I I don't [ __ ] know but I'll ask for it and I got it cuz Jeremy was like he's the one this is after Motor World no to do to go and do Motor World okay keep up so I'm like features editor at Top Gear magazine or something like that and then he's at BBC 93 1993 and they go leave print and come to TV and make Motor World with Jeremy so I went okay make me produce it and then I went uh they anything else and I was like um yeah I want to present on Top Gear and you could feel the tension on the phone like they're like oh for [ __ ] sake and then went yeah yeah sure sure come an audition so I did a couple of items on that but I was terrible and then I got fired from that no there were [ __ ] and I've managed to find some on the internet they're out there on YouTube you can see Andy naked presenting the naked presenter I can't what it's called there's also the Russian the Russian special another one with a motor home in RV which is really yeah really [ __ ] and so stilted like hello watching you being Sterling moss in Ferraris like that bad come so brilliant we loved it come on it's great it's a great movie and the best supporting actor you're you're really good as a presenter so you did so I hat it and I didn't really like it and I was much better behind camera we worked together and we found a rhythm which is I'd find [ __ ] he would then make it into TV and that kind of carried through with Top Gear we trusted each other and we had symbiotically or whatever that same attitude and approach to what we like to put on TV again I think it came from that Repton thing um but was there a cliffhanger after mot world and he did Extreme Machines as well also really good were you involved with that one was did was there then a stock with Telly you either keep going or you can you end up we had i' say we had our shitty period Then I got sacked by by the BBC from like once Motor World no Extreme Machines ended which is about 97 we had a lean period because what next Pebble Mill told me to [ __ ] off cuz we don't want you on the tell anymore and there's no more of these projects to do so go and then I was just scrabbling around doing a bit of freelancing um and then Jeremy did his Chat Show which actually Clarkson which was Niche it wasn't meant to be gr and Norton we weren't never going to get big guests but it was more like his sort of Sunday Times column on the Telly and I when I look back we at the time we go oh these viewing figures are small but it was a brilliant show for turning him into a good presenter so it was a good training ground such that when we got back to doing Top Gear um he kind of knew what to do car culture Extreme Machines lists interview guests all those come together in that all those come together in that and interview people so yeah we' made a BBC science series from BBC One the science of speed and we didn't really enjoy doing that and I don't think it was a very good series it was big budget it bbc1 science but we were like we were like porns in this big world it was quite like whereas we've been like with our little group of five we could [ __ ] about going off filming stuff and then go here's your show but then we had now we had exec and stuff like that going well what's this why are you doing that but we met schumacker God love him and he was amazing in that series y he was like I remember we I had so much respect for him we had to interview him at uh what's the second track they use in F1 no that Ferrari used you know when they could practice all the time they yeah they got Fano but what's the second was it Mello that they used to use maybe him I'm not sure I'll call yourself a driver I don't race for Ferrari sadly we need to talk about that don't we I think it was a second track so this is it we go to I go to see Ross Brawn and I go we're doing a science of speed six parts and one of them is about humans and their different skills like fighter pilots and stuff like that and then obviously racing drivers it had to be schumacker so it was 1999 or 2000 I can't quite remember but it was the week before he went to Japan to finally win the World Championship again which I think was 2000 for Ferrari where he broke that losing streak of theirs it was he had to beat mkah Hainan in the last race it was all down to the last race and he could do it so they were having a final test at let's say it was Mello and I remember in those rules in the you could go for free as a film crew to the track if only one team were testing it didn't count as a Bernie eckl formula one thing and the week before we got a call from Bernie's office going now another team's testing saber there so it's going to cost you 10 grand to go so [ __ ] it find 10 grand go cuz Saba were testing this little kid called Kimmy reiken oh yeah who they weren't sure that they could give him a super license so he was there that day it was his first like F1 test and schumacker came over in the break from testing and he was like hello yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah to drive around with Jeremy in a road car and then we said like we so we'll see you at your hotel for a chat for a proper sit down interview uh later on and he was like yep no when I finish testing I'll come back to the hotel so we got our half an hour with him there so we burn back to the hotel and he's staying in this like four star businessman's hotel in Mello and we're like oh his room will be like just a [ __ ] room we can't go in there we need to like use the bar but how' you close a hotel bar in like 2 minutes so I went to the manager at the reception I was like we're from the BBC can we like close your bar so that we can do an interview in there and he went no no no and I was like it's with Michael Shaker and he went moment like it was the fault Basel faulty he went into the bar and then everybody is booted out like and we had the bar to ourselves so we closed it off shaca comes back Jeremy play slaps his with him what that one when you when you hit your hands whatever it is that one yeah reaction test yeah and like this is quite a weird interview but and he talked about Vil nerve that bumping into Vil nerve he was like I knew it wasn't right but I grown up with Senna PK Mansel I knew it wasn't right but you kind of make your own rules of those moments and they certainly did the guys he he was a notch bit behind age-wise um a pretty honest interview really good and he talked about how he thought hackham was quite a bit of the time faster than him really yeah um and how certainly as fast he said sometimes faster but I think his thing was he was a complete package yeah and Ross Bron said his entry speed into Corners was like what separated him from other drivers he thought that he could like handle any kind of car and make that difference and his entry speed was faster without losing exit speed so I nodded I like yeah that's what I do he sent me some like uh early days of radios transmissions and he's like this is schac Ross Brawn did and he's like this is schumacker at like lap you mean his data he looked at now talking to him he said this is schumacker at lap 65 and he's like coming on the radio going hey guys turn seven I'm seeing some clouds gathering I don't know if they're raining or not but it's like he's talking like this and rubben is like by lap 65 they're like come on re keep it together rubben you know he was like just starting to get knackered and tired um and shimaka was like LEL level and then the bit I remember the most is like sabine's manager she was like like it 's up so we start with thank him and we start packing up all our kit in the bar and he sits there and he goes so what happens now and I was like well we're just going to pack up the kit and everything he goes does this bar stay closed and we were like yeah it stays close till we go out and he went and he went I'll have a drink and we were like like okay and he was like yeah he said you don't understand he's like I'm literally like the world's highest paid traveling salesman he goes I'm in Italy right I can't go anywhere so he goes I go to the track I go to hotel room have room service phone my wife da da d da and that's it because I can't come in the bar now we've got the bar so he had a drink um he snapped all the peanuts and we had then another chat you know just cuz he had the bar and he was just the loveliest man the loveliest most I thought we knew he was tricky I think we all did at beneton didn't we when he was in Bator his clutches when he was finding his way but he became like a geese a proper man of by man I mean an adult in control of himself mature uh and my wife worked for minardi and he was like the only driver who came back to the back of the grid motor homes to say goodbye to katama yeah no one else actually came to the motor but he did proper proper I remember when he came to Diversified about Shak but I will praise that man to death and it's so sad it is I think he I thought it was a sign of what he was like when he came to danf with the and the Ferrari team were there to look after his car was it the FXX yeah that black black car and um just I I was just watching him cuz I've got to meet him briefly without you had to lead him round you show him the track he wouldn't get in your car yeah it was a bit embarrassing that cuz I led him in a like a diesel automatic Jag I think it was a Jag I remember it's a Jag and I think it was a really fast Jag but you drove it like it was a diesel thanks that was the limit of your skills well I was quite I was pretty taken the world champion was in the mirrors in his flashy car and I was kind of I was I was interested of what you know how he was driving what he does I was looking in the mirror and I slightly ran wide at Gambon and sprayed a load of gravel up in the air which and I was thought oh my God I've mugged him off and he probably thinks I've done it on purpose he was too quick cuz he missed the gravel and he was okay about it but I was just watching the way he interacted with the the mechanics the Ferrari mechanics and um just with I watched him approach them they hadn't seen each other for a bit and you could just it was like watching a guy walking into a I don't know family celebration he was the star yeah room for a friend they were just so pleased to him you know every he could tell he knew every one of them by name they're all mates yeah um and it was like being reunited cuz that was after he' retired before he came back before he came back but you could see he was itching to get back into F1 it was uh very imagine not being in there how you stop but yeah Ros Brom was like you know they they hired him when Ferrari was on its knees and he knew it was going to be I mean they paid him a lot but he knew it was going to be a long haul now so will Lewis Hamilton follow in that mode at Ferrari big news I think he will I think he will because you know I think Le would say sen was his Idol but Schumaker was The Benchmark for rebuilding a team with driver input schuma was like there all the time there all the time and like what do we do next what do we do what do you want me to do I'll be back and leis knows that Ferrari and shimaka had this amazing moment when there was a Revival and my God to do that again and lisis is Savage enough to know that if if the driver is inspirational you become this focal point for everybody else I mean Ferrari needed let's be honest some boring British management which they got with Ross Brawn that everybody then starts talking to each other and it's less chaotic um they did need that too but then they need their guy to look up to I don't think anyone at Ferrari is going finally we've got a quick driver cuz they've already got L clurk haven't they who I mean I hear brundle go L clerk is amazing he's like really singles him out as like natural Talent or what do you think they were really clearly defined the differences at Silverstone that moment when um Lewis took out or however you want to describe this the incident between Lewis and vapen yeah at cops yeah very high speed Corner very high speed I the impact he had can't how many G it was but it was enough to take to take him off the hospital so what was interesting in that is that Lewis did pretty much the same move with vapen that he later did with lurk the difference being vapen remained fully committed and turned in for the corner he's like this is mine I'm ahead of you I'm turning in yeah and clerk backed out and let Lewis past and I think that that shows a fundamental difference of approach and when you're talking about the the Schumaker conversation with are you prepared to compromise will you leave the door open will you um back off off um the stappen is in the category of I think like the Schumaker sener group that won't back down Lewis I think the same uh and that is the if it comes off it comes off yeah and and um sometimes it doesn't what's amazing with those on aggregate in your career if you make those moves you probably come out on top more than you don't so sometimes you might go off yeah but it's really punitive you bearing in mind how many points you lose so if you're if you're not at the front all the time and you are and you take and you also a driver that ends up in collisions yeah if if you're not at the front you're never going to go anywhere you'll just be the guy that crashed a lot and didn't never won a championship and what's incredible is is really the ones at the front that do have those incidents where you you get punished with points still come out on top but it does set a precedent that then other drivers know you back out so that would be interesting that maybe different I I hugely rate lerk um and uh and who's and arguably in that decision you know he made a choice there where he got points he might be think different pretty cruel on Saints yeah he a good driver both I mean there's no one in F1 that's rubbish they're all top tier drivers aren't they yeah um it's true class drivers are 22 of them or whatever it is yeah I think shimak was amazing that he had all those like different skills sets in his toolbx that he could do what he did and I remember oh God we were doing a piece about what's in the water at Marinello that was article actually why is this place the place where so much stuff comes together and I went to see the guy who makes the racing seats for the Formula One cars in the days when they were like leather I think you know so back in the Enzo days and you know you got gab Burger seat with Burger written on it and [ __ ] like that and um this but they still did the seats even though they were now whatever they were carbon fiber the molds they still made the seats and shimaka had to go his seat fitting when he arrived he's tiny actually I tried to squeeze into his car yeah and uh it's just no he's really I remember skinny isn't he yeah and he went for his seat fitting and this guy his family that they made luggage as their main thing and then Enzo would come along and said give me some free seats and I'll let you put your name on the seat or something like that and then they just stayed with them making the seats shacos was fitting this family collects balsamic vinegar as a hobby and this guy's got this amazing collection in the Attic of 20-y old balsamic vinegar and everything and schumaker's like he talks schumack about sh's like he really likes apple juice he's got Sweet Tooth he likes apple juice so the guy start showing the collection and shimak is like and he stays for an hour and like Ross braw he's like all these Miss calls from his phone from Ross braw going we're supposed to be discussing you know tires down at the place and shimaka stayed and I think and the guy was saying I think he understood that he has to become part of the fabric of Marinello and I arriving late for a chat with Ross bra he can always have a chat with Ross brw he was just he was weaving himself logically into the into the setup so it's the saddest [ __ ] thing ever that he's now ill it really is and I hope leis who I will support and follow wherever he goes um I mean is he going there just go he can go I finished him I drove a Ferrari in my career cuz if nobody's going to knock with a stepping off a perch that's probably a smart thing to do for when you look back when you're older I think there's an extra 10th of a second maybe driving for Ferrari and I think because of the the G up of being in a red car maybe it's silly but I even with you know not to relate things back but like the Stig outfit for instance that is a is a thing it's a brand it's something you you it's an aspirational thing and I think I I definitely thought wearing that you felt um an energy I think red car Ferrari it's got such a history yeah there's so much passion in the fans and and all that cultural side of it that she imbibed and and absorbed and took it took that energy um at this stage you know Lewis so really to get in a forari it's got to be yeah and and everybody knows it's about if you and it regardless of anything if you put in 110% the fans get behind it and then so I really excited I'm really glad it's happened yeah do we want to see him another season at Mercedes let's mix it up and it's good cat amongst the pigeons for the whole whose cars coming out of the winter um Cold War so who would you sign from Mercedes it's a great question um I mean they've already got a pretty Mega Talent pull there so I don't know I don't know who moves out album he's brilliant fascinating listen to him talk about BPP him but he's very fast gastley is fast okon's fast so there's a few there's a few knocking around yeah or you pick some someone who's not yet in F God imagine if alono went there though his like last year he could pull it out as well of course he could and he seems to be fired up yeah in the green car I'd love it to be alonto I I think they should like pay that would be fun get another champion in either someone like him who's got the real gumption and the balls to say right yeah this is it this is my best shot yeah or someone that's brand new yeah but the fun thing with you well interesting you you not that into cars but you love F1 so I know that yeah but you you aren't the car nerd but but do you regret not including more information about things like differentials like limited slip the Edith for instance spools you know don't tar compounds in Top Gear yeah as we as I look at the Guinness Book of Records entry for most watch show I don't regret including more information about differentials the s that follow you is very annoyed if we don't put more in about he loves the de he loves the de loves a being but the only problem is he doesn't know who any of the CBS are the amount of times I go right who we got today I got Benedict Cumberbatch and he'd go don't ring a bell I don't think he has a TV he's more like the sort of cartoon version of the stick in a way comes out of a back he sits in a box comes out yeah put him in a cenic chamber and then like on a Wednesday get him out I had a Teddy but I just couldn't couldn't work the control or the laptop I just brought that for show cuz you know sticks can't read or right there it's just there oh God remember those films we did like taking you across London that was aw right okay that's the difference in the stigs CU I direct so what we would do uh is if you got one of those races so there's Jeremy in the boats James in a car reach on his bicycle stick everyone would like you'd have a little camera crew with each one and I went with you so I'll direct The Stig bit because basically it's just how many things can we think of to [ __ ] about was was like goals how many stupid things can we make this sck do and you were really on it like I remember we were in the you know we get out of the station there's like mine the gap or something like that and you're like I'm not getting out of the I'm not getting out of the train CU I don't know what that means and then we were at the top of the escalators weren't there and then you turned and went hang on the stig's frying the stairs isn't he so you thought about that you did that so we were a good team for pissing around with a Stig but fast for forward I did one with Stig two in St Petersburg and he nearly quit that day what did you do to him hated it well we were like okay there was like a dead pigeon did you make him get in the luggage compartment cuz I had to do that as well I come out on a carousel oh in the other man yeah no we didn't do that but it was like a long hot day in that suit granted yeah um and you you try and make this s this kind of ethereal like what is in going on his head so we're going down the escalator on the Russian Subway and there's like these massive pictures of cats advertising I don't know cat food or something and but the cats are like huge staring and I was like okay just stare at that cat picture like as if you're fascinated by it and he was like what the [ __ ] am I doing that for I was like just just do it right you're the Stig it's not you so he does that and I oh can you do it again from another angle right and then we move on and then there was like a dead pigeon on the pavement and I was like like okay can you stop and just stare we'll come to you staring at that but you can't walk around it you're like fascinated by this dead pigeon and he was like how many [ __ ] times have we got to do this [ __ ] like he hated it bless him I know he just wants to drive he just wants to drive yeah keep lapping I know so he's a proper Stig yeah oh um whereas you actually annoyingly um grew the stig's character you were very very instrumental I think in putting the idiosyncrasy and the Flesh on that character you were really good at it it was fun it was great and actually silly little things like the suit I when I first turned up there was this really cheap teabag like looking suit and it the oldfashioned helmet and uh that was just something I thought actually you know again this could be better this could yeah we do it better I remember emailing you like dare I sort of suggest something what was that you trying to do an email well it was that was it actually well I got someone else to do it in the end yeah yeah I sent you a different helmet yeah yeah go for it get it on and it looked it just look cool didn't it it was a good it was a good vibe I probably took the credit for it yeah I'm sure you did I probably just went hey guess what I did but you you had an idea about that's s what he should be and all those things um do you remember you played that game of cards or something with James and like you lost so you knocked all the card table over everything that was you deciding to do that um cuz the stick is [ __ ] petulent and a [ __ ] and it was it's fun you were a brilliant stick there's no question um 100% And you built him so there where did that bring us to well and he went look out there and he's like pointed at the hills and it really was The Hills Have Eyes and he was like if you're taken in to there I cannot protect you and the crew were looking at me going did you really do that number play genuinely cuz we're about to get our [ __ ] heads kicked in and our lives are going to be in danger we know that

Channel: Ben Collins Drives

Views: 326,167

Keywords: top gear, the stig, Andy Wilman, the grand tour, grand tour, Clarkson's farm, clarksons farm, film, tv show, Emmy award, the boss, Jeremy Clarkson, Richard hammond, James may, ben collins, ben collins drives

Id: qWtwO2XG8NQ

Length: 56min 12sec (3372 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 25 2024