Swindon Music

Its been confirmed by Ferrari that Michael Schumacher is going to be driving in place of Filipe Massa until Massa is (hopefully) able to race again.

Not sure what to make of this myself, apparently he (Schumacher) had injured his back & shoulder in a motorcycle racing accident earlier this year, so may not be fit enough to drive himself.

Still will be interesting to see how well he does, obviously it'll be a couple of races before he's fully up to speed with the current testing ban, but also he won't be able to get up to his old tricks or he'll get himself & Ferrari banned for safety reasons.

On a positive note, he's only doing it untill Massa's (hopefully) well enough to drive again & its too late in the season for him (Schumacher) to win the world championship, but if he's up to speed quick he could take a few points from the championship contenders & mix things up a bit.

Im actually quite excited about this turn of events, love him or hate him you cant deny Schuey is an amazing driver and will shake up the drivers and maybe push performace a bit more.
It could also bring more public interest into F1, did you see the response he got when he was 'unmasked' as the Stig? God Id love that actually, The Stig in F1. I wonder if any of the present F1 drivers ever get the temptation to dress in all white with the Simpson helmet just to get tongues wagging? :D

I like how they killed off the idea of Schuey being The Stig by putting him in the reasonably priced car and having him drive like a cock LOL
The word is there isnt one Stig but a few of them, a bit like the Blue Peter dog! Good racing drivers are generally out there driving in their various classes so are not availble 100% of the time to do the show.

The reason Schumacher was the stig is because it was his own car, but that was great fun.

I can see many positives with his return, there should be a lot of sold out grand prix for the remainder of the season, Valencia has reportedly only sold 30% of the tickets, i would imagine they're going like s**t off a shovel right now so will be good for them.

As Ernie said love him or hate him, he's amazing, i had the privilige of seeing him drive in the flesh a few years ago at Monaco & he was visibly faster than anyone else around the section of track that i could see. It was 2004 the year he crashed in the tunnel behind the safety car, the biggest cheer all weekend was when he came past us with his wheel hanging off, even the Germans next to me on the campsite were laughing about it later in the day, they were as bored as everyone else when he was winning every race.

Ahh he is a good sport thou, its one of those telly moments when you hold your breath when the helmet was lifted off to reveal Schumacher! Just brilliant, I think I was jumping on the sofa with glee!
Yeah it did get boring when he and Ferrari were so dominant but it happens when you get such a winning combination.
You know what? Id still love Mansell (my all time hero) to work off that legendary fat arse off his and get back in an F1 car, I think he still has it and my god would it make it more interesting trying to guess the lap his car blows up for no apparent reason whatsoever! LOL
Wow I'm getting so exited now with images in my head of Schuey and Button (maybe Hamilton if his car keeps pace) going wheel to wheel!

It's commonly accepted that the stig is Ben Collins. Look it up.

Awww that old ruse! Ben Collins is involved in the production of Top Gear ( as a driving consultant and co-oridinator ) but his skills are more precision and stunt driving. He could be 'one' of the Stigs but its unlikely that he IS the The Stig. Perry McCarthy was the orginal 'Black' Stig but is now long gone, another driver specualted to be him is Russ Swift, but again motorsport commitments rule him out of being the Stig all the time.
I think the idea of differnent Stigs holds water with so many drivers put forward as him and I just realised Im having a really sad debate about the identity of the Stig LOL Ill stop now...

I was right he's back, I just got the team & season wrong

Team Germany V Team GB next season. Looking forward to seeing Hamilton V Schu though I must say