Perry McCarthy, who attended 10 F1 Grands Prix with the doomed Andrea Moda team before going on to play ‘The Stig’ on the hit motoring show Top Gear, has revealed how Michael Schumacher made him ‘look like an idiot’. McCarthy was one of the unfortunate drivers tasked with qualifying the Andrea Moda Formula squad’s 1992 challenger, alongside Roberto Moreno.
The team is widely considered among the worst in F1’s history, lasting only 12 race weekends into the season before being expelled from the series by the FIA. During this period, McCarthy turned to a future legend of the sport for some advice. Schumacher, who was in his first full season with the Benetton squad after impressing during a six-race stint at the back end of the 1991 campaign, gave the Brit some pointers.
The unlikely duo joined forces for a Benetton F1 test at Silverstone, with McCarthy tapped up to stand in for test driver Alessandro Zanardi, who was unable to make it due to an illness.
In an episode of the Beyond the Grid podcast, McCarthy explained his interaction with Schumacher. “So anyway, Michael was down there, and I’d been going round, and by now, I’m going bloody quickly,” the Brit recounted. “But I’m looking at the times and thinking ‘Okay…’
“And so I asked Michael, ‘How do you drive the lap?’ And so he took me through the entire circuit. I just said: ‘Yes. Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Me too. Yes. Yes. Yes.’ [He said] ‘And Bridge corner I take flat out.’”
McCarthy dismissed this idea at first, but given Schumacher’s pedigree, the Brit thought to give it a try. He continued: “So I’ve gone back out in the car, and it has really wound me up. And I’m going out there and now approaching Bridge corner, and I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I know you’re brilliant, but if you can take it flat out, so can I.’
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Schumacher’s advice didn’t have the desired effect and after nearly crashing the Benetton car. The Brit was later called out by the German’s race engineer Pat Symonds for the moment, and when put on the spot, he brought up the future seven-time world champion’s advice.
“Michael does take it flat when he’s got no fuel in the car and he’s on qualifying tyres,” Symonds told McCarthy. “You were on used race rubber with half a tank of fuel.”
Looking back on the incident, McCarthy wasn’t sure whether or not it was deliberate. “So yeah, obviously Michael totally wound me up to do that,” he explained. “I don’t know if he even realised what he was doing, but that was me being an idiot.”